How to create IPS packages for OpenSolaris

Creating IPS packages for Opensolaris consists of four important steps :

1. Building the package using common method like, make, make install and figure out the dependencies.
2. We need to have a build environment (CBE) [ one time step ]
3. We need to write a spec file
4. We will use pkgtool to generate IPS
5. Building the environment for development

Prerequisites:

Install sunstudio compiler using the command

pfexec pkg install ss-dev

Install the following required packages similarly

• SUNWgnome-common-devel
• SUNWperl-xml-parser
• SUNWgnome-xml-root
• SUNWgnome-xml
• SUNWgnome-xml-share
• SUNWdoxygen (optional)

Installing the Common Build Environment

Download the CBE(Common Build Environment) from :

http://dlc.sun.com/osol/jds/downloads/cbe/test/

Ensure you select the correct architecture. Once downloaded, extract the contents from the tarball. To install run cbe-install. This needs to be run by a user with Primary Administrator privileges. Users wishing to run and CBE once installed successfully should have at least Software Installation privileges. Privilages are easy enough to add, by either manually editing the /etc/user_attr file or using usermod(1) with the -P CLI option.

Download latest pkgbuild from here :

http://pkgbuild.sourceforge.net/download.php (version >= 1.3.98, for generating IPS packages)

CBE 1.7+ includes a version of pkgbuild which at the moment does not generate IPS packages. If you just want to compile packages and generate SVR4 packages then there is no need to perform this step. Use the installed CBE to build the downloaded latest pkgbuild package

$ cd pkgbuild-1.3.98

$ ./configure –prefix=/opt/dtbld/

$ make

$ pfexec make install Set the build environment

$ . /opt/dtbld/bin/env.sh

Get existing spec files to play around with: svn co svn+ssh://anon@svn.opensolaris.org/svn/jds/spec-files/trunk spec-files-trunk

set the build environment by sunning the following script.
$ . /opt/dtbld/bin/env.sh

Building the package and Generating IPS

pkgtool –download –ips build-only SFEjoe.spec

 

Before executing the above command the local repository must be setup to run at localhost:80 using

svcadm enable pkg/server

 

for IPS repo on http://localhost:80 )

Creating Spec files

 
How to write a spec file: http://jucr.opensolaris.org/help/spec_file

Base spec file:

http://jucr.opensolaris.org/help/base.spec

Source Juicer:
http://jucr.opensolaris.org/home

 

4 Days with IPS

Its been four days for me with IPS and I am proud to say that now I am able to write a post dedicated to the very topic of Image Packaging System and porting packages to OpenSolaris . Engineers from the Solaris team have  been working to create IPS packages for OpenSolaris for most of the existing popular open source softwares which are still not existing as binaries to be directly installed to OpenSolaris and needs to be build from source and along with which lies the tedious task of resolving dependencies which some times becomes almost killing and dis-heartening.

Generating IPS package is similar to RPMs which is popular in GNU/Linux and it also uses a file called a Spec file . So IPS specs are similar to RPM specs with some minor differences.

Need for a Spec file:        

 Typical OSS package builds the code using ./configure ; make ;  make install .  Writing a pkginfo file with package metainfo, like name, version,description etc.  Writing a prototype file with list of files and attributes and not to forget the dependency file. All these requires lots of typing and is error prone to . Because of the tediousness people tend to avoid packaging binary tarballs and even  worse build from source.

So we follow the new approach of buillding and packaging in the same step using Spec files . A typical spec file consists of a simple text metainfo mixed with some perl syntax variables and small shell sripts.Metainfo may consist of name, version, description, etc. of the software .It also applies the code changes called patches to the original source while building. Build instructions are tiny shell scriptlets . Package contents are also specified called globs.

Whats inside a spec file ?

•  Source code availability (URL)
•  Local code changes (unified or context diffs)
•  Build instructions
•  Lists of files to package up (globs)                
• Package scripts 
• Metainfo
• Build-time and package dependencies
• Changelog          

What we can do as developers ?

 

● Write a spec file for your favourite app

● Build existing spec files

● Report bugs

● Update packages to the latest version availableBuild the code any way you want

> typical OSS package: ./configure; make;

make install

• Write a pkginfo file:

> package metainfo, like name, version,

description

• Write a prototype file:

> list of files and attributes

• Write a dependency file

•  Write a spec file for our favourite app
•  Build existing spec files
•  Report bugs
•  Update packages to the latest version available

 

More information in the following URLs

• http://pkgbuild.sf.net/
• http://pkgbuild.sf.net/spec-files-extra
• http://opensolaris.org/os/project/jds
• http://opensolaris.org/os/project/xfce
• http://jucr.opensolaris.org