Difference between revisions of "Platform Team/Package Management System"

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<noinclude>{{TOCright}}
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== Summary ==
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[[Category:Activity Team]]
 
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</noinclude>
 
  
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== Zero Sugar Distribution ==
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Sweets is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_management_system Package Management System] entirely based on [http://0install.net/ Zero Install], a decentralized cross-distribution software installation system. It is intended to distribute various software projects created in the Sugar ecosystem, such as libraries, sugar itself, and sugar activities.
  
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Sugar Services provides a method that is transparent for users and convenient for activity developers to support activity dependencies across varying platforms (and their varying dependencies) as well as across Sugar releases. In other words, Services is a common deployment system for activity developers' needs.
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This new distribution method is initiated with these assumptions:
  
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See [[Documentation Team/Services/Scalable development model|Scalable development model]] to learn more about the initial intentions for Sugar Services.
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* The method to share software projects should to be as convenient as possible.
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* It is important to stimulate users into becoming doers&mdash;to modify existing activities, and to share the results of their experiments with other people, viz., a distribution method should handle different variants of the same project.
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* This distribution method is not intended to be the only one, but is targeted more towards direct distribution&mdash;from software creators to software users.
  
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== Workflows ==
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The goal is to create a new distribution method that goes beyond reusing the current methods:
  
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Sugar Services look different depending upon your point of view:
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# [[Development_Team/Almanac/Activity_Bundles|''.xo bundles'']]
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#* Work smoothly only for pure python activities, though only if all (and the same) dependencies are installed on all systems. They stop working smoothly if activities use non-standard dependencies or contain binaries.
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#* But, are not effective in supporting the simultaneous use of multiple versions of software, e.g., the results of experiments (the work) of different doers, in one environment. Users must manually handle the variety of activity versions, e.g., sort out all the local bundles or directories in {{Code|~/Activities}}.
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# ''native packages''
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#* Are not the shortest way to connect developers with users.
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#* In most cases, they don't support multiple versions of the same project.
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#* They don't work at all for sharing results of experiments.
  
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=== Users ===
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And, at the same time, the existing distribution methods are available for reuse in Sweets:
  
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In the case of a poor Internet connection (and a [[Features/Zero Sugar Activities|Zero Sugar Activities]]-implemented feature), users can switch to offline mode and they won't encounter any changes to their regular workflow. Switching to online mode will bring an additional progress bar to the launch dialog for activities that have pending/not-yet-downloaded/out-dated activity dependencies.
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# [[Development_Team/Almanac/Activity_Bundles|''.xo bundles'']] are a subset of the Sweets workflow, from the usage point of view.
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#* It is possible to bundle an entire directory as a sweet project to use it as a regular .xo file.
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# ''native packages''
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#* Sweets is not intended to create one more GNU/Linux distribution. It distributes only projects that people create within the Sugar community; all other software, i.e., dependencies, will be reused from native packages.
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#* For cases like Sugar deployments, using the more centralized, regular repositories (third party or official GNU/Linux distributions with native packages) makes more sense. These native packages of Sugar software will be included in Sweets, as well. When people start using Sweets on top of these Sugar distributions, they will have the chance to choose between natively packaged Sugar components and components that came directly from software creators.
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#* It is possible, when there is a need, to automatically package sweets into native packages. See [[Sweets Distribution]], for example.
  
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=== Activity developers ===
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See also the initial release [[Platform_Team/Sweets/1.0/Notes|notes]].
  
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Sugar Services make sense for activities that have non-Sugar Platform dependencies or support more then one Sucrose release cycle.
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== Zero Install basis ==
  
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To utilize the benefits of Services, activity developers need only to [[Activity Team/Documentation/Services/Activity Developers Guide|mention]] all services that their activity is using. The Services infrastructure will provide specified services (and specified versions) for the activity and [[Documentation_Team/Services/Activity_Developers_Guide#Attaching_dependencies_to_activity|the service will let the activity know]] about them.
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Sweets is entirely based on Zero Install. Sweets might be treated as a tools and infrastructure wrapper around Zero Install. See Zero Install's home page, http://0install.net/, for detailed information. And the [http://0install.net/injector-design.html design] page in particular.
  
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Sugar Services will let activity developers:
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== Further reading ==
  
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* use dependencies that are not intended to be included in the [[0.86/Platform_Components|Sugar Platform]],
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* [[Platform_Team/Sweets/Architecture|Sweets Architecture]] - A guide to basic Sweets concepts.
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** include libraries that are used by only a few activities; or
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* [[Platform_Team/Guide/Sweets_Usage|Sweets Usage]] - A guide to know how to launch software using Sweets.
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** have shorter or longer release/support schedules than Sucrose;
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* [[Platform_Team/Guide/Sweets_Packaging|Sweets Packaging]] - A guide to know how to make your software accessible via Sweets.
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* deploy dependencies that are specific to a particular activity; for example, some Python activities include C libraries—by using Services, an activity developer need not bundle these binaries, they could be used as regular activity dependencies.
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* [[Platform_Team/Infrastructure|Infrastructure Map]] - An overview of the Sweets software world.
  
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See the [[Documentation_Team/Services/Activity Developers Guide|Activity Developers Guide]] to know how to add service dependencies to your activity.
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== Getting involved ==
  
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=== All Sugar developers ===
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* Read the [http://git.sugarlabs.org/sdk/sweets/blobs/master/HACKING HACKING] file to know how to contribute with code.
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{{:Platform_Team/Sweets/Feedback}}
  
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Services are intended to decentralize the Sugar development process. If you have some idea in mind, you can start pushing it through the Sucrose release queue to get it into an upcoming (maybe not the nearest) release. However, since the release process is binary—either your feature is included or not—Services offers more flexibility. For example:
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== Resources ==
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* some features are of arguable general benefit; Sugar Services would allow interested end users to efficiently test (and even deploy) such features;
 
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* some feature are only stable in limited environments; Sugar Services would allow deployment in limited environmets without the risk of destabilizing the rest of Sugar.
 
  
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A developer benefits from 0install [http://0install.net/goals.html features] by:
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* [http://git.sugarlabs.org/sdk/sweets Sources].
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* Recipe files [[Platform_Team/Recipe_Specification|specification]].
  
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* letting users of all deployed Sucrose releases benefit from your new feature instead of having it only in a specific (latest) Sucrose release; for example [[Documentation_Team/Services/Activity_Triggers|Activity Triggers]] services;
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== Subpages ==
  
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See [[Activity Team/Documentation/Services/Service Developers Guide|Service Developers Guide]] to learn how to create a service.
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{{Special:PrefixIndex/{{PAGENAMEE}}/}}
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=== GNU/Linux distributions ===
 
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The [[0.86/Platform_Components|Sugar Platform]] cannot grow endlessly, e.g., installing sugar from packages should not fetch half of all available packages including several UI toolkits, several programming languages, etc., so components like Qt or Ruby are (at least at present) out of the Sugar Platform list. But with Sugar Services, activities can still use such dependencies by installing them from native packaging systems on demand and without bundling binaries.
 
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See [[Documentation_Team/Services/Native_packages_usage|Native packages usage]] to know how to utilize native packages in your activity or service.
 
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== FAQ ==
 
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A short list of questions that describe Sugar Services' purposes.
 
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=== What is Sugar Services not? ===
 
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* It is ''not'' intended to cure all ills.
 
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* It is ''not'' a "must have" for activity developers; use it only if you really [[#Work_flows|need]] it.
 
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* Is is ''not'' a replacement for GNU/Linux distributions' Sugar packaging efforts; Sugar Services places no need for special treatment regarding dependencies as part of the [[0.86/Platform_Components|Sugar Platform]].
 
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* It is ''not'' intended to be used to support large packages (such as Qt or Firefox) in parallel with distributions. Sugar Services should ''not'' be used to avert scenarios such as ''"It is too bad that you don't have Firefox-3.5 in your three-year-old distribution and cannot run the latest Browse activity."'' In such cases, we should require that users update their distribution and Sugar Platform to more recent versions.
 
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=== How is Sugar Services different? ===
 
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* ''From the point of view of [http://0install.net/ 0install]:'' Sugar Services is just a method to create a 0install infrastructure; think about "apt" vs. "dpkg" or "yum" vs. "rpm". In other words, Sugar Services are an analog of the [http://0install.net/0release.html 0release] command localized to Sugar needs.
 
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* ''From the point of view of [http://www.packagekit.org/ PackageKit]:'' PackageKit provides a distribution-agnostic method to install already packaged software. Via 0install, Sugar Services let users install unpackaged software as well. Moreover, 0install will use PackageKit to install missing dependencies if they present in a user's distribution.
 
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* ''From the point of view of GNU/Linux distributions'': see the 0install [http://0install.net/goals.html original goals].
 
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== Documentation ==
 
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Start your exploration with:
 
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* [[Documentation Team/Services/Activity Developers Guide|Activity Developers Guide]] to get instructions how to use the already created services.
 
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* [[Documentation Team/Services/Service Developers Guide|Service Developers Guide]] for how to build a new service or wrap an upstream project to make it useful for sugar developers.
 
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Or open the [http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Category:Services/Documentation services documentation] category page.
 
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== List of services ==
 
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{{Special:PrefixIndex/{{PAGENAME}}/}}
 
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To see the entire list of services, go to http://download.sugarlabs.org/services/.
 
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== TODO ==
 
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* [[Activity Team/Services/Bugs|Bugs]] service
 
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* install PackageKit from saccharin
 
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* [[Activity Team/Services/Statistics|Statistics]] service
 

Latest revision as of 14:51, 3 July 2012

Summary

Sweets is a Package Management System entirely based on Zero Install, a decentralized cross-distribution software installation system. It is intended to distribute various software projects created in the Sugar ecosystem, such as libraries, sugar itself, and sugar activities.

This new distribution method is initiated with these assumptions:

  • The method to share software projects should to be as convenient as possible.
  • It is important to stimulate users into becoming doers—to modify existing activities, and to share the results of their experiments with other people, viz., a distribution method should handle different variants of the same project.
  • This distribution method is not intended to be the only one, but is targeted more towards direct distribution—from software creators to software users.

The goal is to create a new distribution method that goes beyond reusing the current methods:

  1. .xo bundles
    • Work smoothly only for pure python activities, though only if all (and the same) dependencies are installed on all systems. They stop working smoothly if activities use non-standard dependencies or contain binaries.
    • But, are not effective in supporting the simultaneous use of multiple versions of software, e.g., the results of experiments (the work) of different doers, in one environment. Users must manually handle the variety of activity versions, e.g., sort out all the local bundles or directories in ~/Activities.
  2. native packages
    • Are not the shortest way to connect developers with users.
    • In most cases, they don't support multiple versions of the same project.
    • They don't work at all for sharing results of experiments.

And, at the same time, the existing distribution methods are available for reuse in Sweets:

  1. .xo bundles are a subset of the Sweets workflow, from the usage point of view.
    • It is possible to bundle an entire directory as a sweet project to use it as a regular .xo file.
  2. native packages
    • Sweets is not intended to create one more GNU/Linux distribution. It distributes only projects that people create within the Sugar community; all other software, i.e., dependencies, will be reused from native packages.
    • For cases like Sugar deployments, using the more centralized, regular repositories (third party or official GNU/Linux distributions with native packages) makes more sense. These native packages of Sugar software will be included in Sweets, as well. When people start using Sweets on top of these Sugar distributions, they will have the chance to choose between natively packaged Sugar components and components that came directly from software creators.
    • It is possible, when there is a need, to automatically package sweets into native packages. See Sweets Distribution, for example.

See also the initial release notes.

Zero Install basis

Sweets is entirely based on Zero Install. Sweets might be treated as a tools and infrastructure wrapper around Zero Install. See Zero Install's home page, http://0install.net/, for detailed information. And the design page in particular.

Further reading

Getting involved

  • Read the HACKING file to know how to contribute with code.
  • Submit your bug report or feature request.
  • Subscribe to the sugar-devel mailing list and email with the subject prefixed with [SWEETS].
  • Ask your question on IRC channels, #sugar (not logged) or #sugar-newbies (logged).

Resources

Subpages

Retrieved from "https://wiki.sugarlabs.org/index.php?title=Platform_Team/Package_Management_System&oldid=80472"