Joel,
I got past my self created problems last night
and have had a good night's sleep.
I think my planned package is complete, I wanted
to review it with someone, I will try to be brief...
This is a single file, perhaps sized to fit on a cdrom.
Any Linux system, any hardware, that recognizes
the filesystem used (currently Reiser-3) may turn
the file into a device with losetup, and then just
mount it somewhere in the directory tree.
What they will find under <mount_point> is:
<mount_point>/baby/src
All of the virgin source tarballs used.
<mount_point>/baby/doc
The step-by-step guide and ...
<mount_point>/refbox
The reference vserver based on Bash
and BusyBox. This is the single point
location of software to share with other
vservers.
<mount_point>/vsbox01
An example of a vserver system built by
linking to the <refbox> softwares.
Any Linux system that runs the kernel and
processor that the software was built for can
run the vservers "out of the box".
Currently that means Linux-2.6.14 with Vs-2.0.1
on an i686 compatable machine.
The reference vserver has a non-standard layout.
The view from the inside <refbox>:
The base install is a static Bash, the dynamic loader,
the three common dynamic libraries and the dynamically
linked BusyBox that shows up in: /sbin, /bin, /lib, /etc
This is a full Bash, including UDP and TCP i/o
and the combination provides over 200 of the
common terminal commands.
This base install is 5.08 Mb. But I may have forgotten
to strip the binaries.
No 'init' program, you can do that with a Bash script.
The BusyBox has a linuxrc and an init but I haven't
tried them.
Additional software that can turn the base-install
into a minimum-install system is present under the
/opt/<vender_name/* trees.
These can be linked to if a more normal minimum
Linux system is desired.
Everything that makes this system self maintainable
should be present. Currently:
/opt/gnu/bash (1.59 Mb)
The full, dynamically linked Bash
/opt/gnu/coreutils (8.23 Mb)
The full, dynamically linked CoreUtils - all of
them a version that understands extended file
attributes and file access control lists.
/opt/sgi (1.98 Mb)
The full, dynamically linked ATTR and ACL toolset.
/opt/schily (1.05 Mb)
The full, dynamically linked star program and friends.
This is an alternative to gnu-tar that correctly handles
extended file attributes and file control lists.
/opt/tecgraf ( tiny )
The Lua programming language. Both the interactive
and the command line versions. Also directions on
how-to add this to the host's bin-formats included.
Lua is ideal for writing human readable, machine
executable, configuration files and scripts.
I think that is all. Still scratching my head over including
external readline and gettext packages.
The question is because I can build Lua for none, use
the Bash libraries, or use the external packages.
The view from inside <vsbox01> will have a more typical
layout of the first and second level directory trees.
This will only be an example - the user will be encouraged
to pick and choose what to link to inside of <refbox>.
The total is less than 20Mb - lots of room to play with
other setups. You can make a star-ball of whatever
you build inside the loop-file when ready to put it on
the real filesystem somewhere.
Should be both educational for people who build their
own and useful as is to run common services.
The BusyBox has ftp, rpm and apt tools, should be
able for a vserver to install whatever it needs
from the network.
What common tool set have I overlooked?
Do you see anything that really must be included?
For anything with more features, a person should
start with a Linux base system from a distributor.
Mike
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