- introduced layouts

This commit is contained in:
michel-schinz 2003-12-16 22:16:43 +00:00
parent ebc512096b
commit 19754f5cdf
1 changed files with 237 additions and 161 deletions

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@ -75,13 +75,13 @@ package are stored below it.
The unpacking directory contains at least the following files:
- install-pkg
install-pkg
a script performing the installation of the package,
- README
README
a textual file containing a short description of the package,
- COPYING
COPYING
a textual file containing the license of the package.
* Downloading and installation of packages
@ -90,102 +90,46 @@ A package can be installed on a target machine by downloading its
archive, expanding it and finally running the installation script
located in the unpacking directory.
All files belonging to a package will be installed in a single
directory called the "package installation directory". The package
installation directory contains all files, and only files belonging to
the (version of the) package.
** Layouts
Rationale:
The installation script installs files according to some given layout.
A layout maps abstract locations to concrete directories on the target
machine. For example, a layout could map the abstract location "doc"
(where documentation is stored) to the directory
"/usr/local/share/doc/my_package".
Such an organisation makes it easy to uninstall package by just
recursively deleting a single directory. It also makes it trivial to
know to which package a given file belongs.
Currently, the following abstract locations are defined:
** Root directory layout
base
The package installation directory will be an indirect sub-directory
of some "package root directory". A package root directory is a
directory on the target machine which contains all installed packages.
There can be several package roots on a target machine, for example
one for packages installed globally, and one per user for "personal"
packages.
The "base" location of a package, where the package loading
script "load.scm" resides.
A package root directory contains exactly two sub-directories, and
nothing else. These directories are called "installed" and "active".
active
The "installed" directory contains exactly one directory per package,
and nothing else (N.B. here "package" really means "package" and not
"package version"). These directories have the same name as the
package they contain. For every installed version of a package, there
is a sub-directory of the package directory. These directories are
named using the printed representation of the version they contain.
Location containing a symbolic link, with the same name as the
package (without the version), pointing to the "base" location of
the package. This link is used to designate the "active" version
of a package, that is the one to load when a package is requested
by giving only its name, without explicit version.
The "active" directory contains only symbolic links which point to
package version directories. There is at most one symbolic link per
installed package. These symbolic links identify the active (or
default) version of a package, that is the version will be used if a
script asks for a given package without explicitly which version is
required.
scheme
Example:
Location containing all Scheme code. If the package comes with
some examples showing its usage, they are put in a sub-directory
called "examples" of this location.
Let's imagine a system on which the directory
"/usr/local/lib/scsh/modules" serves as the package root directory. On
this system, versions 1.0 and 2.0 of a package called "package_1" are
installed, the latter being active. Further, version 1.5.4 of a
package called "package_2" is installed and active. The contents of
the package root would look as follows:
lib
/usr/local/lib/scsh/modules/
installed/
package_1/
1.0/
all files belonging to v1.0 of package_1 (and nothing else)
2.0/
all files belonging to v2.0 of package_1
package_2/
1.5.4/
all files belonging to v1.5.4 of package_2
active/
package_1 -> ../installed/package_1/2.0
package_2 -> ../installed/package_2/1.5.4
Location containing platform-dependent libraries.
** Package directory layout
doc
Even though the exact contents of the package directory will depend on
the package, all package directories are laid out according to the
rules below. These rules make it easy to examine the contents of a
package directory, and find important data like the package
documentation.
The standard layout is shown below. Some directories are of course
optional because not all packages have something to put in all of
them.
load.scm
Scheme file written in Scheme 48's exec language, whose role is to
define all the structures which belong to a package.
scheme/
Directory containing all the Scheme code of the package.
lib/
Directory containing one sub-directory per platform for which the
package was installed. These sub-directories contain the shared
libraries for the given platform; the name of a given platform is
the one given by autoconf's "config.guess" script.
<platform>/
Directory containing the shared libraries for <platform>.
doc/
Directory containing the documentation of the package, possibly in
different formats.
Location containing all the package documentation. This location
contains one or more sub-directories which store the documentation
in various formats. The contents of these sub-directories is
standardised as follows, to make it easy for users to find the
document they need:
html/
@ -202,9 +146,85 @@ them.
ps/
Directory containing the PostScript documentation of the
package, if any; this directory should contain at least one file
called "<package>.ps" where "<package>" is the name of the
package.
package, if any; this directory should contain at least one
file called "<package>.ps" where "<package>" is the name of
the package.
misc-shared
Location containing miscellaneous data which does not belong to
any directory above, and which is platform-independant.
The directories to which a layout maps these abstract locations are
not absolute directories, but rather relative ones. Therefore, a
layout alone is not enough to know where files will end up on the
target machine: a prefix is also required. This prefix is specified on
the command-line during installation, using the "--prefix" option, as
explained below.
Example :
Let's imagine that a user is installing version 1.2 of a package
called "foo". This package contains a file called "COPYING" which has
to be installed in sub-directory "license" of the "doc" location. If
the user chooses to use the default layout, which maps "doc" to
directory "<package_full_name>/doc" (see below), and specifies
"/usr/local/etc/scsh/modules" as a prefix, then the "COPYING" file
will end up in:
/usr/local/etc/scsh/modules/foo-1.2/doc/license/COPYING
\_________________________/ \_________/ \_____________/
1 2 3
Part 1 is the prefix, part 2 is the layout's mapping for the "doc"
location, and part 3 is the file name relative to the location.
*** Predefined layouts
Every installation script comes with a set of predefined layouts
which serve different aims. They are described below.
**** The "scsh" layout
The "scsh" layout is the default layout. It maps all locations to
sub-directories of a single directory, called the package installation
directory, which contains all the files of the package being installed
and nothing else. Its name is simply the full name of the package in
question, and it resides in the "prefix" directory.
The "scsh" layout maps locations as follows:
base -> <prefix>/<package_full_name>
active -> <prefix>
scheme -> <prefix>/<package_full_name>/scheme
lib -> <prefix>/<package_full_name>/lib/<platform>
doc -> <prefix>/<package_full_name>/doc
misc-shared -> <prefix>/<package_full_name>
This layout is well suited for installations performed without the
assistance of an additional package manager, because it makes many
common operations easy. For example, finding to which package a file
belongs is trivial, as is the removal of an installed package.
**** The "fhs" layout
The "fhs" layout maps locations according to the File Hierarchy
Standard (FHS, see ...), as follows:
base -> <prefix>/share/scsh/modules/<package_full_name>
active -> <prefix>/share/scsh/modules
scheme -> <prefix>/share/scsh/modules/<package_full_name>/scheme
lib -> <prefix>/lib/scsh/modules/<package_full_name>
doc -> <prefix>/share/doc/<package_full_name>
misc-shared -> <prefix>/share/scsh/modules/<package_full_name>
The main advantage of this layout is that it adheres to the FHS
standard, and is therefore compatible with several packaging policies,
like Debian's, Fink's and others. Its main drawback is that files
belonging to a given package are scattered, and therefore hard to find
when removing or upgrading a package. Its use should therefore be
considered only if third-party tools are available to track files
belonging to a package.
** File permissions
@ -213,16 +233,19 @@ TODO
** Installation procedure
Packages are installed using the "install-pkg" script located in the
package archive. This script must be given the name of the root
directory in which to perform installation with the "--root" option.
It also accepts the following options:
package archive. This script must be given the name of the prefix
using the "--prefix" option. It also accepts the following options:
--dry-run or -n
--layout <name>
Specifies the layout to use.
--dry-run
Print what actions would be performed to install the package, but
do not perform them.
--inactive or -i
--inactive
Do not activate package after installing it.
@ -238,8 +261,8 @@ TODO (my current idea is to add support to install-lib to easily
To use a package, its "loading script" must be loaded in Scheme 48's
exec package. The loading script for a package is a file written in
the Scheme 48 exec language, whose name is "load.scm" and which is
located directly in the package installation directory.
the Scheme 48 exec language, whose name is "load.scm" and which
resides in the "base" location.
To load this file, one typically uses scsh's "-lel" option along with
a properly defined SCSH_LIB_DIRS environment variable.
@ -251,27 +274,40 @@ configuration, and this value can be overridden by setting the
environment variable SCSH_LIB_DIRS before running scsh.
In order for scsh to find the package loading scripts, one must make
sure that scsh's library search path contains the names of both the
"installed" and the "active" directories of *every* existing package
root directories.
Example:
On a system where the package root directory is
"/usr/local/lib/scsh/modules", the SCSH_LIB_DIRS environment variable
has to contain at least the following two directories:
/usr/local/lib/scsh/modules/active
/usr/local/lib/scsh/modules/installed
sure that scsh's library search path contains the names of all
"active" locations which containing packages.
The names of these directories should not end with a slash (/), as
this forces scsh to search them recursively. This could *drastically*
slow down scsh when looking for packages.
A package named "foo" can then be used from a script provided that the
following option is added to its command line:
Example:
-lel foo/load.scm
Let's imagine a machine on which the system administrator installs
scsh packages according to the "fhs" layout in prefix directory
"/usr/local". The "active" location for these packages corresponds to
the directory "/usr/local/share/scsh/modules", according to the layout
specification above.
Let's also imagine that there is a user called "john" on this machine,
who installs additional scsh packages for himself in his home
directory, using "/home/john/scsh-packages" as a prefix. To ease their
management, he uses the "scsh" layout. The "active" location for these
packages corresponds to the directory "/home/john/scsh-packages",
according to the layout specification above.
In order to be able to use scsh packages installed both by the
administrator and by himself, user "john" needs to put both active
directories in his SCSH_LIB_DIRS environment variable. The value of
this variable will therefore be:
"/usr/local/share/scsh/modules" "/home/john/scsh-packages"
Now, in order to use packages "foo" and "bar" in one of his script,
user "john" just needs to load their loading script using the -lel
option when invoking scsh, as follows:
-lel foo/load.scm -lel bar/load.scm
* Writing packages
@ -284,26 +320,28 @@ to simplify this task a small scsh installation framework is provided.
This framework is composed of several files which are meant to be
included in the package archive. These files are:
- install-pkg
install-pkg
a trivial sh script which launches scsh on the main function of
the installation library, passing it all the arguments given by
the user,
- install-lib.scm
the code for the installation library, documented below,
- install-lib-module.scm
install-lib.scm
the code for the installation library, whose public interface is
documented below,
install-lib-module.scm
Scheme 48 interface and structure definitions for the installation
library.
library,
configure.scm
a Scheme library providing a function to query the name of the
platform, needed by some layouts.
As explained above, when the install-pkg script is invoked, it launches
scsh on the main function of the installation library, which does the
following:
- parse the command line arguments (e.g the --root option),
- parse the command line arguments (e.g the --prefix option),
- load the package definition file, a (Scheme) file called
"pkg-def.scm", which is supplied by the package author and which
@ -322,81 +360,119 @@ specifies the name, version and installation code for the package. The
package definition statement is expressed using the following syntax
exported from the installation library:
(define-package <name> <version> <body> ...) (syntax)
(define-package <name> <version> <extensions> <body> ...) (syntax)
Define a package to be installed. NAME is the package name (a
string), VERSION its version (a list of integers) and BODY is the
list of statements to be evaluated in order to install the package.
string), VERSION its version (a list of integers), EXTENSIONS is an
association list of extensions, and BODY is the list of statements
to be evaluated in order to install the package.
The installation statements typically use functions of the
installation library in order to install files in their target
location. The following functions are currently exported:
(install-file <file> [<target-dir>] [<perms>])
(install-file <file> <location> [<target-dir>] [<perms>])
Install the given file in TARGET-DIR. TARGET-DIR is specified
relative to the package directory, and defaults to "." (i.e. the
package directory itself). If the target directory does not exist,
it is created along with all its parents, as needed.
Install the given FILE in the sub-directory TARGET-DIR (which must
be a relative directory) of the given LOCATION.
If the directory in which the file is about to be installed does not
exist, it is created along with all its parents, as needed. If FILE
is a string, then the installed file will have the same name as the
original one. If FILE is a pair, then its first element specifies
the name of the source file, and its second element the name it will
have once installed. The second element must be a simple file name,
without any directory part.
The copied file and all directories created by this command have
their permissions set to PERMS, an integer which defaults to #o755
(i.e. read, write and execute for the owner, read and execute for
the rest).
(install-files <file-list> [<target-dir>] [<perms>])
(install-files <file-list> <location> [<target-dir>] [<perms>])
Like install-file but for several files, which are specified as a
list.
list. Each element in the list can be either a simple string or a
pair, as explained above.
(install-directory <dir> [<target-dir>] [<perms>])
(install-directory <dir> <location> [<target-dir>] [<perms>])
Install the given directory and all its contents, including
sub-directories, in TARGET-DIR. This is similar to what INSTALL-FILE
does, but for complete hierarchies.
Install the given DIRectory and all its contents, including
sub-directories, in sub-directory TARGET-DIR of LOCATION. This is
similar to what INSTALL-FILE does, but for complete hierarchies.
Notice that DIR will be installed as a sub-directory of TARGET-DIR.
(install-directories <dir-list> [<target-dir>] [<perms>])
(install-directories <dir-list> <location> [<target-dir>] [<perms>])
Install several directories in one go.
(install-directory-contents <dir> <location> [<target-dir>] [<perms>])
Install the *contents* of the given DIRectory in sub-directory
TARGET of LOCATION.
An additional function exists to query the mapping of a location:
(get-directory <location> <install?>)
Get the absolute name of the directory to which the current layout
maps the abstract LOCATION. If INSTALL? is true, the directory is
the one valid during installation; If it is false, the directory is
the one valid after installation, that is when the package is later
used.
The distinction between installation-time and usage-time directories
is necessary to support staged installation, as performed by package
managers like Debian's APT.
Example:
A typical package definition file for a simple package called
"my_package" whose version is 1.2 could look like this:
(define-package "my_package" (1 2)
(install-file "load.scm")
(install-directories '("scheme" "doc")))
(install-file "load.scm" 'base)
(install-directory-contents "scheme" 'scheme)
(install-file ("LICENSE" . "COPYING") 'doc)
(install-directory-contents "doc" 'doc))
With such a definition, invoking the installation script with
"/usr/local/lib/scsh/modules" as package root would have the
following effects:
"/usr/local/" as prefix and "fhs" as layout would have the following
effects:
1. The package directory
1. The base directory
/usr/local/lib/scsh/modules/installed/my_package/1.2
/usr/local/share/scsh/modules/my_package-1.2
would be created.
2. File "load.scm" would be copied to this directory.
would be created and file "load.scm" would be copied to it.
3. All the contents of the directory called "scheme" would be copied
to directory
/usr/local/lib/scsh/modules/installed/my_package/1.2/scheme
/usr/local/share/scsh/modules/my_package-1.2/scheme
The same would happen for the contents of directory "doc".
which would be created before, if needed.
4. The package would be activated by creating a symbolic link with
4. File "LICENSE" would be copied to directory
/usr/local/share/doc/my_package-1.2/
with name "COPYING".
5. All the contents of the directory called "doc" would be copied to
directory
/usr/local/share/doc/my_package-1.2/
6. The package would be activated by creating a symbolic link with
name
/usr/local/lib/scsh/modules/active/my_package
/usr/local/share/scsh/modules/my_package
pointing to
../installed/my_package/1.2
./my_package-1.2
** Packages containing C code (for shared libraries)
@ -424,13 +500,13 @@ installation script described above to install scsh packages. This
script currently provides some support for staged installations,
which are required by several packaging systems.
This support is provided through an additional option, --dest-root,
which specifies the package root in which the files have to be copied
by the installation script. The files will then have to be moved from
this location to their final root directory, i.e. the one given
through the --root option, by the system packaging tools.
This support is provided through an additional option,
--install-prefix, which specifies the prefix in which the files have
to be copied by the installation script. The files will then have to
be moved from this location to their final prefix directory, i.e. the
one given through the --prefix option, by the system packaging tools.
(The --dest-root option plays the same role as the DEST_DIR
(The --install-prefix option plays the same role as the DEST_DIR
variable which is typically given to "make install", for makefiles
which support staging directories).
@ -446,12 +522,12 @@ Package
(Package) unpacking directory
(Packages) root directory
Layout
(Package) installation directory
(Abstract) location
Package loading script
* Version
$Id: proposal.txt,v 1.1 2003/12/14 12:14:21 michel-schinz Exp $
$Id: proposal.txt,v 1.2 2003/12/16 22:16:43 michel-schinz Exp $