--- loncom/build/readme.html 2001/01/17 11:07:26 1.3 +++ loncom/build/readme.html 2001/01/17 13:40:29 1.13 @@ -1,5 +1,12 @@ + + + +LON-CAPA Software Developer Instructions + +

LON-CAPA Software Developer Instructions

- +
Written by Scott Harrison, January 17, 2001 +
Last updated, January 17, 2001
  1. Using CVS
  2. Viewing the software (make HTML)

    +Commands + +
    +cd loncom/build
    +rm -Rf HTML (or alternatively, "make clean")
    +make HTML
    +cd HTML
    +(look at the index.html file with a web browser such as Netscape)
    +
    +
    +General description of what happens +

    +This is the actual make target code. + +

    +
    +HTML:
    +        install -d HTML
    +        cp ../../doc/loncapafiles/*.gif HTML
    +        perl parse.pl ../../doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.html HTML > HTML/index.html
    +
    +
    + +What basically happens is that specially marked-up data in the LON-CAPA +cvs repository file doc/loncapafiles.html is parsed into a more +viewable format by loncom/build/parse.pl. The resulting +file gives a very well organized view of all the files, directories, +links, ownerships, permissions, and brief documentation of what each +file does. +

  3. Compiling the software (make build)

    +Commands + +
    +cd loncom/build
    +make build
    +
    +
    +General description of what happens +

    +This is the actual make target code. + +

    +
    +build:
    +        perl parse.pl ../../doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.html build > Makefile.build
    +        make -f Makefile.build all
    +
    +
    + +loncom/build/parse.pl reads in all the build information out +of doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.html. A new Makefile named +loncom/build/Makefile.build is dynamically constructed. +This dynamically generated Makefile is then run to build/compile +all the software targets from source. This currently takes 10 minutes +(depends on the speed of the machine you compile with). +

    +Example +

    +Here is information for one file tth.so provided in +doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.html. + +

    +
    <METAGROUP> +
    <LONCAPA TYPE=LOCATION DIST="redhat6.2" SOURCE="loncom/modules/TexConvert/tthperl/tth.so" TARGET="usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/tth.so" CATEGORY="system file"> +
    <DESCRIPTION> +
    shared library file for dynamic loading and unloading of TeX-to-HTML functionality +
    </DESCRIPTION> +
    <BUILD> +
    loncom/modules/TexConvert/tthperl/commands +
    </BUILD> +
    <DEPENDENCIES> +
    ../tthdynamic/tthfunc.c +
    ../ttmdynamic/ttmfunc.c +
    </DEPENDENCIES> +
    + +loncom/build/parse.pl sees the BUILD tags and sets up +a dynamic file Makefile.build to run the command inside the +BUILD tags (currently, DEPENDENCIES is not used for anything +besides documentation). +

    +

    +Here is an example of a dynamically generated Makefile.build +that builds two LON-CAPA files (one of which is tth.so). + +

    +all: ../homework/caparesponse/capa.so ../modules/TexConvert/tthperl/tth.so 
    +
    +../homework/caparesponse/capa.so:  ../homework/caparesponse/caparesponse.c ../ho
    +mework/caparesponse/caparesponse.pm alwaysrun
    +        cd ../homework/caparesponse/; sh ./commands
    +
    +../modules/TexConvert/tthperl/tth.so:  ../modules/TexConvert/tthperl/../tthdynam
    +ic/tthfunc.c ../modules/TexConvert/tthperl/../ttmdynamic/ttmfunc.c
    +        cd ../modules/TexConvert/tthperl/; sh ./commands
    +
    +alwaysrun:
    +
    + +

  4. Adding/removing files from the LON-CAPA installation (doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.html)

    +To add and remove (and alter) +

    +All that you have to do to alter the behavior of the installation is +edit a single file (doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.html). +Adding, removing, and altering files requires proper attention +to the syntax of file format of course. +

    +File Format +

    +The preceding "make build" documentation +gives an example METAGROUP entry describing one particular file. +All data within loncapafiles.html is specified according +to markup tags. The format and syntax of loncapafiles.html +is currently best described by the HTML documentation code at the beginning of +loncapafiles.html (as well as, by example, seeing how various +information is coded). All in all, the syntax is quite simple. +

    +Philosophy and notes (the thing nobody reads) +

    +Packaging the software from CVS onto a machine file system requires many +things: +

    +

    +

    +I looked into, and tried, different ways of accomplishing the above +including automake and recursive make. The automake system seemed quite +complicated (and needlessly so in terms of this project since, by and large, +it works to coordinate many different types of build/compilation parameters +whereas we are more concerned with installation parameters). Recursive make +has significant deficiencies in the sense that not all the information +is kept in one place, and there are significant levels of dependency +between all the things that must be done to keep software packaging +up to date. A particularly convincing article I found when looking into +much of this was + +"Recursive Make Considered Harmful" by Peter Miller. Complicating +matters was, at the time, it was unclear as to what categories +of software files we had, and whether or not the directory structure +of CVS would remain constant. With an ever-developing directory structure +to CVS, I preferred to organize the information on a per-file basis +as opposed to a per-directory basis (although there is a successful +implementation of a standard big Makefile in loncom/Makefile). +Additionally, a standard big Makefile assumes certain "normalcy" to +the directory structure of different potential operating system directories +(RedHat vs. Debian). +

    +

    +If you take time to look at loncapafiles.html +(and perhaps run the make HTML command) +you will find that the organizing information according to the markup +syntax in loncapafiles.html is simple. Simple is good. +

    +

    +loncom/build/parse.pl is the script (invoked automatically +by the various targets in loncom/build/Makefile) that reads +doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.html. parse.pl +is capable of reading and returning different types of information +from loncapafiles.html depending on how parse.pl +is invoked. parse.pl has yet to have introduced new sources +of error, and has been tested in quite a number of ways. As with +any parser however, I remain paranoid. +

    +

    +My regrets with the current system is that parse.pl is +slow (can take 1 minute to run) and includes a few tidbits of code, +specific to the make process, that probably should be in +loncom/build/Makefile. Additionally, loncapafiles.html +should have a DTD and all those other good SGML-ish things (and parsing +should be done with a real SGML-derived parser). +

    +

    +On the plus side, the parse.pl-loncapafiles.html +combination has been working very efficiently and error-free. +

  5. Configurable files versus non-configurable files

    +Machine-specific information is the difference +

    +The current list of configurable files for the LON-CAPA system is +/etc/httpd/access.conf, /etc/smb.conf, /etc/ntp.conf, /etc/krb.conf, +/etc/atalk/config, /etc/ntp/step-tickers, +/home/httpd/html/res/adm/includes/copyright.tab, +/home/httpd/html/res/adm/includes/un_keyword.tab, +/home/httpd/hosts.tab, and +/home/httpd/spare.tab. +

    +

    +All of these configurable files contain machine-specific information. +For instance, the LON-CAPA system relies on unique host IDs such +as msua3, s1, s2, msul1, and 103a1 (specified as a "PerlSetVar lonHostID" +field within /etc/httpd/access.conf). +Non-configurable files simply do NOT have machine-specific information. +The impact on updating software +

    +What this means in terms of software updating is that +

      +
    • non-configurable files can be simply overwritten with newer versions +(without "anything" else to worry about), +
    • and configurable files must follow these steps to be safely overwritten +
        +
      1. have their machine specific information saved, +
      2. be overwritten, and then +
      3. have their machine specific information restored. +
    +

  6. Updating the non-configurable files on your machine (make install)

    +Commands + +
    +cd loncom/build
    +make install
    +
    +
    +General description of what happens +

    +This is the actual make target code. + +

    +
    +install: build
    +        perl parse.pl ../../doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.html install > Makefil
    +e.install
    +        make -f Makefile.install SOURCE="../.." TARGET="" directories
    +        make -f Makefile.install SOURCE="../.." TARGET="" files
    +        make -f Makefile.install SOURCE="../.." TARGET="" links
    +
    +
    + +For safety reasons (so as to not mess up a machine's configuration), +configuration files are NOT installed during this step. This means +that files such as /etc/httpd/access.conf, /etc/smb.conf, /etc/atalk/config, +/home/httpd/html/res/adm/includes/copyright.tab, and +/home/httpd/spare.tab are not overwritten, but remain as old, non-updated +copies. (To automatically update these files and save/restore +their encoded machine configuration, you must run "make configinstall"). +

  7. Updating the configurable files on your machine (make configinstall)

    +Commands + +
    +cd loncom/build
    +make configinstall
    +
    +
    +General description of what happens +

    +This is the actual make target code. + +

    +
    +configinstall: 
    +        # there is a dependency on having directories in place, but oh well...
    +        perl parse.pl ../../doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.html configinstall > Makefile.configinstall
    +        make -f Makefile.configinstall SOURCE="../.." TARGET="" configfiles
    +        perl loncaparestoreconfigurations lasttimestamp
    +        make -f Makefile.configinstall TARGET="" configpermissions
    +
    +
    + +Configuration files are installed during this step. This means +that files such as /etc/httpd/access.conf, /etc/smb.conf, /etc/atalk/config, +/home/httpd/html/res/adm/includes/copyright.tab, and +/home/httpd/spare.tab are overwritten. Before being overwritten, +a backup copy is made though. Information is read out of these +backup copies and restored to the new files by the +loncaparestoreconfigurations script. To ensure that +new file permissions and ownerships are installed, a final set of +chown and chmod commands are called upon all +the configuration files. +

    +For the truly paranoid +

    +If you are truly paranoid, you can just make the +Makefile.configinstall file and then save, copy, +and restore all the configuration values yourself. +loncaparestoreconfigurations is pretty smart though, has yet to +fail, and besides, a backup copy is always made (time-stamped so that backup +copies are not overwritten). +

  8. Building RPMs (make RPM)

    +Commands + +
    +cd loncom/build
    +rm -Rf BinaryRootL (or alternatively, "make clean")
    +make RPM
    +(to subsequently install, you can type commands like
    +"rpm -Uvh --force LON-CAPA-base-3.1-1.i386.rpm")
    +
    +
    +

    +WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! +

    +Never never never never never manually install the +LON-CAPA-setup-3.1-1.i386.rpm. This RPM is meant to only be +installed by the CD installation process (it wipes out +the existing /etc/passwd file). +

    +Configuration files +

    +Configuration files are automatically saved with the file suffix +".rpmsave". So /etc/httpd/conf/access.conf is saved as +/etc/httpd/conf/access.conf.rpmsave. You can restore +the machine-specific configuration information by running +the /usr/sbin/loncaparestoreconfigurations. However, +a warning is important here. If you install an RPM twice +without restoring your configuration, you will overwrite the +".rpmsave" files. +

    +General description of what happens +

    +This is the actual make target code. + +

    +
    +RPM: BinaryRoot
    +        cat base_file_list.txt | perl make_rpm.pl base 3.1 '' '' BinaryRoot
    +        cat setup_file_list.txt | perl make_rpm.pl setup 3.1 '' '' BinaryRoot
    +
    +BinaryRoot:
    +        perl parse.pl ../../doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.html BinaryRoot
    +
    +
    + +A BinaryRoot directory is generated that reflects the locations, +ownerships, permissions, and contents for all the CVS source +files, compiled binaries, directories, and links as they should eventually +occur on the '/' filesystem location. +

    +

    +loncom/build/make_rpm.pl is robust (tested over the +span of months) and, unlike other automated RPM-builders, cleanly +builds new RPMs without any after-effect of temporary files left +on the system. (On the negative side, there are a number of +LON-CAPA specific customizations inside make_rpm.pl which, for +the sake of reusability, should eventually be removed). Two new RPMs +are generated: LON-CAPA-base-3.1-1.i386 and LON-CAPA-setup-3.1-1.i386.rpm +(again, never manually install LON-CAPA-setup-3.1-1.i386.rpm). +

+ + + + + +