Build system: Difference between revisions

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== Maintainers ==


== Description ==
1. Scott Ananian (c_scott)


The OLPC XO software build system must combine software from various sources:
2. Michael Stone (m_stone)


* unchanged packages from Fedora,
3. Chris Ball (cjb)
* forked packages from Fedora, where the version in Fedora is insufficient,
* OLPC packages which are not available in Fedora,
* Sugar activities, and
* hardware specific configuration.


The build system makes software images which can be installed on XOs for testing and deployment.
== Build Branches ==


While OLPC produces generic software images, almost all deployments will want to add some level of customization (such as Sugar activities and software applications, default settings, etc). To allow for this, the build system can be easily installed and used by deployments and developers, allowing for easy local customisation.
Frequently, we find ourselves needing to integrate complicated changes that cut across packages. To make this easier, we make it very easy to 'branch' a build in which the integration can be performed safely, without interfering with other work. If you are trying to perform a delicate piece of integration for which it would be helpful to have a separate build, please contact one of the [[Build system#Maintainers|build system maintainers]].


== Current build system ==
We currently have four build branches: [[Joyride|joyride]], meshtest, xtest, and [[Rainbow|rainbow]].


[[OS Builder]] is used for current and upcoming OLPC software releases. Compared to its predecessors, it makes extensive use of Fedora's build tools under a higher layer which allows for organisation of components and easy customization. It is also easier to install and use.
== Instructions for Use ==


== Files produced by the build system ==
To add a completely new piece of software (either a new activity or a new package) to a build, two steps are necessary.
[[Category:File formats]]


The build system produces sets of files for each targeted OLPC model, each starting with the build number such as <tt>os''883''</tt>. It also produces a representation of the resulting filesystem for the OLPC model as one or more large files, that the OLPC's [[firmware]] knows how to copy to internal storage. The [[Release notes]] for a build document this install procedure.
1. Modify streams.d/olpc-development.conf to mention the new activity or new package.


=== For users installing ===
2. Include a source code package (.xo or .src.rpm) and a binary package (.xo or .rpm) in your dropbox (which is located at ~/public_rpms/<build>/ on dev.laptop.org). You will need to create the folder, here is an example for joyride:
mkdir -p ~/public_rpms/joyride


; .''file''.md5
Note: do not remove the .xpm's or .xo's from the public_rpms location, not even after they already showed up in an image: public_rpms is not a temporary place where the build systems grab them; it will grab them from that location every run.
: a cryptographic hash of the contents of the file ''file'', so that a [[Download#Verifying|download can be verified]].
; .zd2, .zd4, .zd8
: compressed disk images containing a boot and root filesystem, for XOs with eMMC, microSD, or SD card internal storage, such as [[XO-1.5]] and [[XO-1.75]]. The [[firmware]] knows how to copy this to internal storage. The trailing number indicates the size of the disk image in GB, and must be equal to or smaller than the size of the internal storage.
; .zd''N''.zsp , .zd''N''.zsp.fs.zip
: cryptographic signatures for .zd''N'' files, used by secured laptops to verify the authenticity of the files during installation.
; .uim and .onu
: a representation of the blocks of a partitioned [[UBIFS]] image for the XO-1. The firmware knows how to copy this to its built-in NAND flash memory.
; .img and .crc
: a non-partitioned JFFS2 file system image for an [[XO-1]]. The XO-1's [[firmware]] knows how to copy this to NAND Flash memory.


=== For users updating ===
3. Update ~/public_rpms/<build>/ChangeLog to describe the changes made by the packages you are introducing.


; .toc and .usb
=== ChangeLog Format ===
: Information for performing a system update using [[olpc-update]] without requiring network access.


=== For engineers ===
The format of this ChangeLog is


; .activities.txt, .libraries.txt and .packages.txt
<pkg-lines> (containing ".xo", ".rpm")
: the [[Activities]], [[Collections]], and [[Fedora]]/OLPC RPM packages that went into the build. These are useful for build regression testing.
<detail-lines> (not containing the string ".xo", ".rpm", "--")
; .files.txt.gz
-- <signature> (-- is the line marker)
: a list of the entries in the filesystem. Most web browsers can view this compressed file directly. Used for build to build regression testing.
; .tree.tar.lzma
<pkg>
: the filesystem, in LZMA compressed tar format. If you carefully unpack this onto a Linux partition on a USB drive or SD card and make some changes, you may be able to boot an XO from it.
<pkg>.rpm
; .ext3.img
<detail>
: raw disk image including partition table, suitable for copying onto a USB drive, see [[OS images for USB disks]]. Not present in recent builds ... they are generated and discarded because they are not intended to boot.
-- <signature>


== Historical build systems and their evolution ==
An example:


[[Pilgrim]] was the first build system, developed by OLPC and Red Hat, and used for OLPC's early software releases.
Etoys-61.xo
etoys-2.2.1710-1.noarch.rpm
etoys-2.2.1710-1.src.rpm
* changed activity launch to match new Sugar
* words in tiles separated by spaces not camelCase
* adds "distance to" and "bearing to" tiles
* better .pot sort order
-- Bert Freudenberg <bert@freudenbergs.de> Tue, 16 Oct 2007
squeak-vm-3.9-12olpc1.i386.rpm
squeak-vm-3.9-12olpc1.src.rpm
* big merge with trunk
* unicode key events
* fixed dbus plugin
-- Bert Freudenberg <bert@freudenbergs.de> Mon, 15 Oct 2007


[[Puritan]] was developed after pilgrim started to show signs of outgrowing its design, calling for a cleaner and leaner system. However, it was never adopted officially by OLPC.
== Output from the Build System ==


[[Image builder]] was developed as a post-processing tool to complement Pilgrim when OLPC decided to hand off part of the image customization process to deployments; it takes Pilgrim images and applies various customizations to them to produce a new output image. This started to outgrow its design when various parts of pilgrim needed to be copied into Image builder in order to be able to make more invasive customizations.
The build system produces things:


For initial software development for the XO-1.5 laptop, a desire to move to standard Fedora build tools emerged. [http://dev.laptop.org/git/projects/fedora-xo/log/?h=xo-1.5 fedora-xo] was used to produce the first XO-1.5 software release, but the resultant build system was messy and left no systematic process for customizations by deployments. This lead to design goals for future build systems to balance use of Fedora build tools, organisation of OLPC's special requirements, and the ability for deployments to easily obtain and use the tool while making customizations to the image.
1. An RPM repository, currently located under the [http://xs-dev.laptop.org/~cscott/repos repository root]


== School Server Build Tools ==
2. The output of the build system is currently located under the [http://xs-dev.laptop.org/~cscott/olpc/streams/ streams root]


See [[XS Building Software]] for details.
== Implementation Details ==


[[Category:Build system]]
The build system we want to have consists of the following components:
[[Category:XO software and Fedora]]

<pre>
/------\
| F7 yum |--------+
| repos | |
\------/ V
/--------\ +--------+ +----------+ +---------+ /------\
| upstream | | distro | | pkg build| |compose | | stable |
| src |-->| SCM |-->| system |-->| tools |-->| rainbow|
| repos | | (CVS) | | (Koji) | |(joyride)| | xtest |
\--------/ +--------+ +----------+ +---------+ \------/
^ ^ ^
/--------\ | | |
|patches |-----+ | + - - - - - - - + |
\--------/ | | dropbox | |
+----->| system |----+
/--------\ | | (public_rpms) |
| olpc | | + - - - - - - - +
| sources |-------+
| (GIT) |
\--------/


|-----------| |----------------------------| |-----------------------|
sources package maintenance package composition
CVS,GIT Koji, Mock, rpmbuild mash, pilgrim, ChangeLogs
</pre>

The one we actually have is fairly similar but the package-construction step is done partially in [https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Koji Koji] and partially by individual package maintainers using tools like [https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Projects/Mock Mock] and rpmbuild.

== Moving Forward ==

[[Build system requirements]]

[[Build system meeting]]


== Patches Welcome ==

=== Dropbox Mechanism ===
[http://dev.laptop.org/git/users/mstone/buildtools source code]

The dropbox mechanism is a way for people who don't have the resources to work through koji to supply us with activities and RPMs.

It is implemented in two pieces, one running on the dropbox-host and one running on the build-host. The dropbox-host simply provides an rsync daemon that will transfer packages to the builder on request.

The build-host uses the program 'collect-pkgs.py' to aggregate packages and change-entries into an RPM repository for composition by pilgrim.

=== Pilgrim ===

[http://dev.laptop.org/git/users/cscott/pilgrim source code]


Pilgrim is composed of two large and two small scripts and many configuration files.

pilgrim # user-interface
pilgrim-autobuild # implementation
build-one # build the current branch
make-repos # touch up yum repositories

The most important branch is "autobuild". This is where changes deemed suitable for all build branches should be merged.

The other branches - joyride, meshtest, xtest, and rainbow store branch-specific data like which yum repositories to compose into the image, which packages to pull, which activities to include, and so on.

These data are mostly recorded in

streams.d/olpc-branch.conf # a few important config variables
streams.d/olpc-development-yum-install.conf # yum repositories to compose, package exclusions
streams.d/olpc-development.stream # lists of packages and activities to install


[[category:Build Process]]

Latest revision as of 05:50, 8 December 2011

Description

The OLPC XO software build system must combine software from various sources:

  • unchanged packages from Fedora,
  • forked packages from Fedora, where the version in Fedora is insufficient,
  • OLPC packages which are not available in Fedora,
  • Sugar activities, and
  • hardware specific configuration.

The build system makes software images which can be installed on XOs for testing and deployment.

While OLPC produces generic software images, almost all deployments will want to add some level of customization (such as Sugar activities and software applications, default settings, etc). To allow for this, the build system can be easily installed and used by deployments and developers, allowing for easy local customisation.

Current build system

OS Builder is used for current and upcoming OLPC software releases. Compared to its predecessors, it makes extensive use of Fedora's build tools under a higher layer which allows for organisation of components and easy customization. It is also easier to install and use.

Files produced by the build system

The build system produces sets of files for each targeted OLPC model, each starting with the build number such as os883. It also produces a representation of the resulting filesystem for the OLPC model as one or more large files, that the OLPC's firmware knows how to copy to internal storage. The Release notes for a build document this install procedure.

For users installing

.file.md5
a cryptographic hash of the contents of the file file, so that a download can be verified.
.zd2, .zd4, .zd8
compressed disk images containing a boot and root filesystem, for XOs with eMMC, microSD, or SD card internal storage, such as XO-1.5 and XO-1.75. The firmware knows how to copy this to internal storage. The trailing number indicates the size of the disk image in GB, and must be equal to or smaller than the size of the internal storage.
.zdN.zsp , .zdN.zsp.fs.zip
cryptographic signatures for .zdN files, used by secured laptops to verify the authenticity of the files during installation.
.uim and .onu
a representation of the blocks of a partitioned UBIFS image for the XO-1. The firmware knows how to copy this to its built-in NAND flash memory.
.img and .crc
a non-partitioned JFFS2 file system image for an XO-1. The XO-1's firmware knows how to copy this to NAND Flash memory.

For users updating

.toc and .usb
Information for performing a system update using olpc-update without requiring network access.

For engineers

.activities.txt, .libraries.txt and .packages.txt
the Activities, Collections, and Fedora/OLPC RPM packages that went into the build. These are useful for build regression testing.
.files.txt.gz
a list of the entries in the filesystem. Most web browsers can view this compressed file directly. Used for build to build regression testing.
.tree.tar.lzma
the filesystem, in LZMA compressed tar format. If you carefully unpack this onto a Linux partition on a USB drive or SD card and make some changes, you may be able to boot an XO from it.
.ext3.img
raw disk image including partition table, suitable for copying onto a USB drive, see OS images for USB disks. Not present in recent builds ... they are generated and discarded because they are not intended to boot.

Historical build systems and their evolution

Pilgrim was the first build system, developed by OLPC and Red Hat, and used for OLPC's early software releases.

Puritan was developed after pilgrim started to show signs of outgrowing its design, calling for a cleaner and leaner system. However, it was never adopted officially by OLPC.

Image builder was developed as a post-processing tool to complement Pilgrim when OLPC decided to hand off part of the image customization process to deployments; it takes Pilgrim images and applies various customizations to them to produce a new output image. This started to outgrow its design when various parts of pilgrim needed to be copied into Image builder in order to be able to make more invasive customizations.

For initial software development for the XO-1.5 laptop, a desire to move to standard Fedora build tools emerged. fedora-xo was used to produce the first XO-1.5 software release, but the resultant build system was messy and left no systematic process for customizations by deployments. This lead to design goals for future build systems to balance use of Fedora build tools, organisation of OLPC's special requirements, and the ability for deployments to easily obtain and use the tool while making customizations to the image.

School Server Build Tools

See XS Building Software for details.

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