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

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== Summary ==
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{{TOCright}}
 
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[[Category:Zero Sugar]]
 
  
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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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Zero Sugar provides a method that is transparent for users and convenient for doers to deploy software across varying platforms as well as across Sugar releases. Zero Sugar is mainly targeted to support a direct, doer-to-user interaction model, i.e., shortcut the chain of transfer of doer-to-distributor-to-user (still, Zero Sugar could be  [[#Distributors|beneficial]] for distributors, since it unifies the deployment workflow).
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This new distribution method is initiated with these assumptions:
  
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== Benefits ==
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* 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.
  
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How Zero Sugar might be useful depending upon your point of view:
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The goal is to create a new distribution method that goes beyond reusing the current methods:
  
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See also [[Activity_Team/Zero_Sugar/Use_Cases|other]] use cases.
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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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Users can run Sugar effortlessly in multiple environments (machine architectures, GNU/Linux distributions, etc.). And since Sugar also stimulates users to be doers, there can be tons of handmade software in the field (mostly duplicates and reinvented wheels, but this is the nature of learning with Sugar—one tries some software, realizes some missing or additional feature, modifies or mimics some code, learns something new, and eventually produces a new creation). It is becoming critical to provide an easy and robust launching scheme for all these pieces of code, without writing long HOWTOs somewhere on a wiki, like "Please, if you are on Ubuntu, install these packages before starting my activity...".
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# [[Development_Team/Almanac/Activity_Bundles|''.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.
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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.
 +
#* 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.
  
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Relying only on a particular distributor, i.e., using activities only from one distributor's channel, makes Sugar less useful or universal. Zero Sugar provides the most convenient and direct deployment method possible between the author of a piece of code and its users.
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See also the initial release [[Platform_Team/Sweets/1.0/Notes|notes]].
  
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=== Doers ===
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== Zero Install basis ==
  
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Authors of code are always interested in supporting as large an audience of users as possible. And since people can use Sugar in different environments, it is critical to provide an instrument that permits an activity to run  on all Sugar platforms. In the case of Python-based activities, the existing practice of just zipping the activity code into .xo files works pretty well. But for arbitrary scripting languages, such as Ruby, that are not part of the [[0.88/Platform_Components|Sugar Platform]], for binary based activities and for activities that have dependencies that are not included in the Sugar Platform, there is the problem of providing the user with the necessary code.
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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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Zero Sugar tries to solve all the possible issues that prevent activity launching in an heterogeneous Sugar environment.
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== Further reading ==
  
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Also, if you have some development idea in mind, you can start pushing it through the Sucrose release queue to get it into an upcoming (though maybe not the nearest) release. However, since the release process is binary—either your feature is included or not—Zero Sugar offers more flexibility for everyone. For example:
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* [[Platform_Team/Sweets/Architecture|Sweets Architecture]] - A guide to basic Sweets concepts.
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* some features are of arguable general benefit; Zero Sugar would allow interested end users to efficiently test (and even deploy) such features;
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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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* some feature are only stable in limited environments; Zero Sugar would allow deployment in limited environments without the risk of destabilizing the rest of Sugar.
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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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* [[Platform_Team/Infrastructure|Infrastructure Map]] - An overview of the Sweets software world.
  
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=== Distributors ===
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== Getting involved ==
  
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The [[0.88/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) not in the Sugar Platform list. But with Zero Sugar, activities could still use such dependencies by installing them from native packaging systems on demand, and without bundling their binaries.
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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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== How it works at a glance ==
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== Resources ==
  
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Instruments and services that are used within Zero Sugar:
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* [http://git.sugarlabs.org/sdk/sweets Sources].
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* [[Activity Team/Zero Sugar/0sugar|0sugar]], the main tool, everything happens via the {{Code|0sugar}} command.
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* Recipe files [[Platform_Team/Recipe_Specification|specification]].
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* [http://0install.net/ 0install] decentralized deployment infrastructure.
 
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* [http://build.opensuse.org/ OBS], openSUSE Build Service, build farms and repository of native packages for the GNU/Linux distributions and architectures that OBS [http://wiki.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Build_Service_supported_build_targets supports].
 
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* [http://www.packagekit.org/ PackageKit] to install software from native packaging systems.
 
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* [http://download.sugarlabs.org/ Sugar Labs]'s resources to host various files.
 
  
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=== Identification ===
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== Subpages ==
  
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Every Zero Sugar package is identified by a Web url like [http://services.sugarlabs.org/gcompris GCompris]. The file, url points to, is regular 0install feed (in other words, 0install package) that contains metadata about package itself and all its implementations.
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{{Special:PrefixIndex/{{PAGENAMEE}}/}}
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Implementations are Web links to tarballs. Packages are split into implementations to:
 
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* let user launch not only last version e.g. package can contain implementations for several branches or/and stabilities,
 
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* split binary implementations per OS and platform,
 
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* split implementations per language.
 
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Zero Sugar natively supports ''forks'' (better name?) that could be [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork_%28software_development%29 regular forks] or just results of doers' experiments i.e. without intension to push changes to an upstream. Forks are regular Zero packages and identified by unique Web url but linked to an upstream package (by mentioning upstream url in [http://0install.net/interface-spec.html#id4015759 feed-for] metadata field). So, having an upstream activity http://go.sugarlabs.org/Record, http://A.doer.org/My_Record from doer A and http://B.doer.org/My_Record from doer B, user C will have Record implementations from three sources.
 
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Having urls as Zero packaging ids, it will be possible to:
 
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* Launch activity in any supported environment just by passing activity url to {{Code|sugar-activity}} command.
 
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* Shell's activities list items might not be tied to activity implementation. Useful for:
 
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** creating activity catalogs without downloading implementations,
 
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** more efficient disk-storage usage e.g remove less frequently used activities to save space for new ones.
 
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=== Spec file ===
 
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The process departing point is a [[Activity Team/Zero Sugar/0sugar.info Specification|spec file]] which is used within Zero Sugar to accomplish two major tasks:
 
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* how to prepare the code to launch,
 
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* how to share the code.
 
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The Zero Sugar spec file is an all-sufficient entity. With only the spec file and tools like {{Code|0sugar}} and {{Code|0distro}}, it is possible to prepare the code necessary to launch in various environments like the major rpm/deb-based GNU/Linux distributions or just launch locally.
 
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=== Prepare the code ===
 
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The preparation step can be trivial, unless the code requires a building stage. Building might occur:
 
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* on the developer's workstation, to deploy to environments similar to the developer's,
 
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* on OBS, to build for the GNU/Linux distributions that OBS supports, or
 
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* building might happen on the user's side, if other methods don't work.
 
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=== Share the code ===
 
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Sharing step might be:
 
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* ''local'', if code needs to be run only in the doer's environment.<br>Zero Sugar spec file will be handled as a regular {{Code|activity.info}} file.
 
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* ''peer-to-peer'', direct sharing between doer and users.
 
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** Code can be launched if on-line users in the Neighborhood View have a copy of shared code, i.e., the doer only needs to be on-line to let other people launch his code.
 
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** Just by transfering a bundle with the code, e.g., using .xo bundles.
 
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* ''client-server'', doer needs to upload code to the server, and users will download it.<br>The particular method might be different:
 
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** via the 0install infrastructure,
 
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** via OBS repositories with native packages,
 
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** by uploading bundles to servers like ASLO.
 
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* ''distributor'', most likely similar to ''client-server'', but different from the doer's point of view, since only the distributor is responsible for a particular distribution method.
 
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=== Regular workflow ===
 
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The regular workflow within Zero Sugar, in the case of coding a Python-based activity, will look like the following:
 
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* Create activity [[Activity_Team/Zero_Sugar/0sugar.info_Specification#Python_activity|spec file]].
 
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* Code the activity.
 
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* Try current code in Sugar just by selecting an icon in the activities list.
 
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* When a milestone is achieved, call:
 
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** {{Code|0sugar dist}} to create sources tarball
 
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** {{Code|0sugar commit}} to let Sugar know that the activity can be shared in peer-to-peer mode between on-line users
 
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* If doer wants to support server-client sharing model for a broad audience of users:
 
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** [[Sysadmin/Shell_account_request|request an account]] on sunjammer.sugarlabs.org (or use other servers to rsync files to),
 
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** call, {{Code|0sugar push}} to publish 0install feeds and files
 
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* If doer wants to support OBS based sugar distributions or users that prefer activities from native packages:
 
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** create a project on OBS,
 
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** call {{Code|0sugar push <obs-project>}}
 
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* options for distributors:
 
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** If it is an OBS-based distribution, there is no need for any packaging-related work at all, just link/branch the activity to your distribution project.
 
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** Use the activity spec file and {{Code|0distro}} command to build native packages on non-OBS build farms. Most likely, the resulting packages will not conform to all the requirements for inclusion in an official repository, but this feature could still be useful when strong packaging rules are not required, e.g., in various Sugar/edu derivates like Trisquel-edu, SoaS or USR.
 
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** Having a link to sources tarball on the page, package is identified by, and information about dependencies from the spec file, create a regular package for any particular GNU/Linux distribution.
 
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== Documentation ==
 
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Start your exploration of Zero Sugar beginning with these resources:
 
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* How Zero Sugar looks from the GNU/Linux distribution packaging point of view
 
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* How Zero Sugar looks from the 0install point of view
 
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* How Zero Sugar looks from the Sugar Activity developer point of view
 
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See also the Zero Sugar example [[Activity Team/Zero Sugar/Use Cases|use cases]] .
 
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<!--
 
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* [[Documentation Team/Services/Activity Developers Guide|Activity Developers Guide]] to get instructions on how to use the existing Zero Sugar packages in activities.
 
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* [[Documentation Team/Services/Service Developers Guide|Service Developers Guide]] for how to create a Zero Sugar package.-->
 

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"