NAME
em_autogrip - create and maintain an Emdebian Grip repository
Synopsis
Syntax: em_autogrip -b PATH [OPTIONS] [COMMAND [PACKAGES ...]]
em_autogrip -?|-h|--help|--version
Commands:
-b|--base-path PATH: path to the top level grip directory [required]
-p|--package PACKAGES ... : add binary package(s) to the repository
-s|--source PACKAGES ... : add source package(s) to the repository
-t|--testing: only work on testing instead of unstable
--noskipold: reprepro option for newly added packages
--missing: print a list of missing source packages
--build-depends: print a list of missing build dependencies
--britney: print the status of testing migrations
-?|-h|--help|--version: print this help message and exit
Options:
-n|--dry-run: check which packages would be processed
-m|--mirror MIRROR: use a different Debian mirror for
updates
[default:
http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian]
--filter-name STRING: alternative name for the filter
repository
--grip-name STRING: alternative name for the grip
repository
--add-new: if a source package is found to be
missing,
or outdated in unstable, add it to the
list.
Description
The default is to update all the packages so far existing in the filter
repository, in all architectures.
After adding binary packages, ensure that em_autogrip is run without
any options so that any missing source packages and any other Emdebian
TDebs can be updated.
Although em_autogrip will setup the initial configuration files for the
repository, it will not modify any existing files *except* the pkglist
filter that prevents the mirror adding unwanted packages.
In particular, em_autogrip will only handle unstable by default.
Migrations to testing and stable, even the creation of testing and
stable, are not handled by em_autogrip. em_autogrip defaults to
including packages into unstable and will only include packages
directly into testing in "--testing" mode when updating to versions of
packages uploaded into Debian via testing-proposed-updates or when
catching up with a new (or stalled) repository. "--testing" mode
requires a pre-configured testing configuration in "reprepro".
Public repositories should also use Secure-Apt by adding a value for
SignWith: to each distribution in the Grip repository (there is no
point signing the filter repository as it should not be public).
em_autogrip also updates the locale repository, shared by Emdebian Grip
and Emdebian Crush.
Note that em_autogrip will only update the *binary* package(s)
specified, even when it includes the full source package. This is down
to how reprepro runs the filtered update - all binary packages expected
to be listed in ’dpkg --get-selections’ are included and even if a
source package includes another binary, it will not be downloaded in
the reprepro update. As em_autogrip does not actually build any
packages from source, unless reprepro downloads the pre-built binary
into the filter repository, that binary package will not be available
to em_autogrip. This means that the same source package in Debian may
be listed as generating a *smaller* number of binary packages in
Emdebian Grip.
Bugs
Problems with the automatic gripping of packages:
1. Source packages need to complement binary packages.
2. Binary packages with the same name as the source package cause both
to be included
3. Some such binary packages cause unwanted dependencies to be added.
4. Some Architecture:all packages are dependencies of packages that only
exist on some architectures, which breaks the edos-debcheck.
An example of 3. is lsb. An example of 4. is acpi-support-base.
The source package lsb is needed to complement lsb-desktop but the lsb
binary package is a meta-package for the entire lsb suite which brings
in all of Qt.
acpi-support-base is Architecture: all but depends on acpid which is
Architecture: any [i386 amd64] - i.e. acpi-support-base should only
exist on i386 and amd64 but as it is Architecture: all, it gets added
to arm, armel, mips, mipsel and powerpc as well - at which point it has
to be removed. There are ongoing discussions about such packages.
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2009/01/msg002.html
Signal:Noise ratio in output
One important point here - reprepro outputs a lot of messages and may
include lots of statements about errors and checksum mismatches,
’skipping foo’ and ’downgrading bar’ from and to the same version. The
problem is that the useful information is hidden within all the noise,
so not all reprepro STDERR (or STDOUT) output can be simply ignored.
For now, just go by effects. If something is broken, look for errors
that relate specifically to that package but ignore "errors" where
everything is fine. Something like that. More work in the
Emdebian::Grip module should isolate duplicate operations and
unnecessary work, which in turn, should cut out most of the noise.
Using add-new
In --testing mode, em_autogrip checks for packages that have missing or
outdated source packages in unstable and outputs a sample command that
can be run to fill the gap. If --add-new is used, that sample command
will be run - it does mean that --add-new requires --testing and that a
second run of --testing without --add-new will be needed. This support
is part of grip_cron.sh
Build dependencies
In the absence of a quicker way to identify which real package
Provides: a virtual dependency, apt-cache showpkg is used against the
main system cache. If this machine is not running Debian unstable, the
list may be inaccurate or skip dependencies that are provided by
packages that are only available in unstable (or if running stable,
packages which are only in unstable or testing).
Repetition
If a package fails to build from source in Debian, "em_autogrip" will
keep on trying to update it until the same version exists in the filter
repository for all supported architectures.
Equally, manual tinkering with packages in the Grip repository, e.g.
adding modified versions for testing, will cause the original Debian
version to keep appearing in the "em_autogrip" updates and reprepro
will ignore the built package as long as the modified version is
higher.
Old packages
"em_autogrip" does not handle removals from the archive - these are
manual within Debian too. Packages that only exist in stable or
oldstable will confuse "em_autogrip", especially if the old package
name is ’Provided’ by another package which already exists in Grip.
e.g. postgresql.
Architecture list
The list of architectures supported by a particular Grip setup cannot
be easily changed - a lot of repository updates are needed before new
architectures can be added to the array. Existing architectures can be
dropped relatively easily. Sequence is unimportant.
@archlist = qw/i386 amd64 arm armel powerpc mips mipsel/;
recursive edos considered risky
Recursion is still risky so edos is left as a manual step. The problem
appears to be that once the repository gets out of step with Debian, an
update must happen before edos can be resolved. Once the repository is
up to date, edos can be run, apparently, without problems. Testing
continues to see if simply moving the function lower in the flow
resolves the problems.
Copyright and Licence
Copyright (C) 2007-2009 Neil Williams <codehelp@debian.org>
This package is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.