Winter 2010 SBR600 Weekly Schedule

Please note:

• The schedule here is tentative.
• Week-by-week details will be filled in as the course progresses.

Week 1 (January 11) - Introduction

Tuesday

• Welcome
• Introductions
• Intro to Build & Release
  • Brief overview of the process
    • Versioning & repository systems
    • Compilation
    • Testing
    • Packaging
    • Compositing
    • Release
    • Distribution
    • Mirroring
  • These steps vary according to the particular project/product. For example, when distributing software physically, "Release" means performing a RTM, where the final "gold disk" is sent to the duplicating house to be mass-produced; but when distributing software electronically, "Release" means sending the software to the online distribution system. The sequence of steps also varies between projects/products.
• Course Layout
  • Project-based course
  • Working with Open Source
  • Working with the Fedora Project
• Communication Tools
• Course Outline
• Visit the CDOT Area

Friday

• Make
• Makefile Basics
  • Targets, Dependencies, and Commands
  • Implied rules (e.g., .o files)
  • Examples
• Building software from a source tarball using a makefile

Readings/Resources

• Two simple makefile examples

ToDo

Communication Lab: By Friday, January 15, Set up your accounts (wiki, IRC, FAS2).

• Create a blog post which will appear on the OpenSource@Seneca Planet, containing:
  • A portion of an IRC conversation you've had with someone on a Fedora or Seneca IRC channel.
  • A link to your User page on the Seneca wikis
  • A link to your User page on the Fedora wiki
  • Note: don't just dump this stuff in a blog post, add some introductory text as well!
• Add an entry to the Winter 2010 SBR600 Participants page

Lab 1: By Tuesday, January 19:

• Build 2 packages from Source
  • The NLED editor from http://cdot.senecac.on.ca
  • Any package that uses a configure script -- SourceForge might be a good place to look for such packages.
• Blog about the experience.

Week 2 (September 15) - RPM Packages I

Wednesday

• Discussion of issues related to building
  • Finding dependencies.
  • -jX flag to enable multiple jobs

RPM Packages

• Purpose
• What's in an RPM package file
  • Metadata
    • What the package provides
    • Dependencies
    • Packager, date, license, summary, description, ...
  • Digital signature
  • Software
  • Data
    • Fonts
    • Icons
    • Sample data
  • Documentation
  • Configuration files
  • Setup scripts
    • Pre-install
    • Post-install
    • Pre-uninstall
    • Post-uninstall
    • Triggers

The RPM Database

• Purpose of the database
• Querying the RPM database
  • rpm -q

Friday

Creating Packages

• Packaging scenarios
• Setting up a Packaging Environment
  • Needed packages
    • rpm-build
    • rpmdevtools
    • rpmlint
  • Setting up the RPM tree
    • run rpmdev-setuptree
• Taking a look at existing source RPMS (useful as examples)
  • Installing
    • yumdownloader --source nameofpackage
    • rpm -i nameofpackage.src.rpm
    • Source will be in ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES and specfile will be in ~/rpmbuild/SPECS
  • Examine the specfile
  • Rebuild on the local machine
    • rpmbuild --rebuild nameofpackage.src.rpm
  • Building from the spec file
    • cd ~/rpmbuild/SPECS; rpmbuild -ba nameofpackage.spec

Writing a specfile

• Run rpmdev-newspec packagename in ~/rpmbuild/SPECS
• Edit the skeleton specfile.
• Test it: rpmbuild -ba packagename.spec
  • If successful, output will be binary RPM(s) in ~/rpmbuild/RPMS and source RPM in ~/rpmbuild/SRPMS
    • Can install binary RPM with: rpm -i rpmname
  • If unsuccessful, read the error messages carefully.
• Check it with rpmlint: rpmlint packagename*
  • Remember to check the spec file as well as the binary and source RPMs.
  • Correct any errors found.

Layout of a specfile

• Basic Sections

1. preamble - basic metadata
2.  %prep - commands to prepare the package for building
3.  %build - commands to build the package
4.  %install - commands to install the built files
5.  %check - commands to check/test the built files (optional, often not included)
6.  %clean - commands to clean up the disk space
7.  %files - list of files to be included in the pacakge
8.  %changelog - record of the package's change-history

• Scriptlets
  •  %pre -- run before installation
  •  %post -- run after installation
  •  %preun -- run before uninstallation
  •  %postun -- run after uninstallation
    • Note that during upgrade, the installation of the new package is considered to happen before the removal of the old package.
• Macros
  •  %{_tmppath}
  •  %{buildroot}
  •  %{_bindir}
  •  %{_datadir}
  •  %{_mandir}
  •  %{_smp_flags}
  •  %setup
  •  %configure
  •  %makeinstall

Creating a Simple Package

• NLED
• Writing the specfile
• Testing the specfile
• Using rpmlint

Resources

• Fedora Package Maintainers page
  • Packaging How-To

See also "Fedora Linux" chapter 5 (see Seneca Library website > eBooks > View All > Safari > Fedora Linux).

ToDo

• Take the software you compiled last week and package it (not Nled!). Blog about the experience. Include a link to your source RPM (and optionally your binary RPM) from your blog. Please complete this by Monday, September 28.

ToDo

• Finish tasks from week 1 if not already completed.
  • Remember, marking in this course is done on the basis of blog posts which appear on the planet.
  • You should have two blog posts on the planet by now: One with a link to your Seneca and Fedora user pages plus a snippet of IRC conversation, and one with a reflection on your experience compiling software from source code.

• Find out what -j value results in the fastest build time for the software you have chosen. Blog about your results.

• Listen to the audio recording of last semester's conference call with Jesse Keating, Fedora Release Engin