[gentoo-dev] [rfc] layman-global.txt, repositories.xml, la..

Hello there!


This may look like like a lot of text but it actually isn't.
Please read on. Thanks.


During the last few days rbu and I have been teaming up on a proposal
implementation improving on some of the issues that persist around
layman-global.txt. (previously summarized in [1])

Both layman and the feed aggregator (planet) behind overlays.gentoo.org
work with a database of information on repositories. These databases
are not shared so changes do not propagate. That's not cool.


What we have done for now:

- Extended layman-global.txt format to repositories.xml format adding
- A list of feed URIs
.. for the planet side
- Several source URIs
.. for mirroring and several protocols
- Owner name
i.e. the name of the person to contact
- quality classification
(core, stable, testing, experimental, graveyard)
.. to better guide users
- project/person distinction
.. for the planet side mainly

- Created DTDs and Relax NG schemas for both the old and new format

- Wrote a converter script from layman-global.txt format to
repositories.xml format and back. It also adds
"generated file" style warnings. The scripts have no dependencies
other than plain Python.

- Prepared a patch against layman trunk at r38 that adds support for
- repositories.xml format
- display of owner names (in addition to e-mail addresses)


We have more or less the following future process in mind:

- Collect feedback from the list (right now)
and adjust the format and process as needed

- Give birth to repositories.xml online
- Decide about the final web location of repositories.xml
- Put an initial repositories.xml on gentoo infra
- Set up the repositories.xml to layman-global.txt converter
script on the same machine to propagate all changes over
to layman-global.txt in an automated fashion so we can keep
it alive and up-to-date while still only editing its replacement

- Revise layman patch until wrobel wants it upstream
and put our a new layman release after

- Setup script to create planet config from repositories.xml
(Script creation is in progress.)

- Take layman-global.txt offline in a year or so


Here is a sample entry for each XML formats:

layman-global.txt
=====================================================================
<overlay
contact="sebastian@pipping.org"
name="sping" src="git://git.goodpoint.de/overlay-sping.git"
status="unofficial"
type="git">
<link>http://git.goodpoint.de/?p=overlay-sping.git</link>
<description>Gentoo overlay of Sebastian Pipping</description>
</overlay>
=====================================================================

repositories.xml
=====================================================================
<repo
name="sping"
quality="experimental"
status="unofficial">
<description>Gentoo overlay of Sebastian Pipping</description>
<homepage>http://git.goodpoint.de/?p=overlay-sping.git</homepage>
<owner type="person">
<email>sebastian@pipping.org</email>
<name>Sebastian Pipping</name>
</owner>
<source type="git">git://git.goodpoint.de/overlay-sping.git</source>
<feed>http://git.goodpoint.de/?p=overlay-sping.git.git;a=atom</feed>
</repo>
=====================================================================


The code and schemas can be found at [2].

Now please ask questions and let us know what you think.



Sebastian


[1] http://www.mail-archive.com/gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org/msg35095.html
[2] http://git.goodpoint.de/?p=overlays-xml-specification.git;a=summary

On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 08:23:34PM +0200, Sebastian Pipping wrote:
> Hello there!
>
>
> This may look like like a lot of text but it actually isn't.
> Please read on. Thanks.

Thanks for your good work.
I agree with your changes it was indeed needed.

Actually, during my GSOC, I've noted layman-global.txt should be changed
to have a cleanier description information and it's probably the moment
to introduce this.

At the moment, <description> is used for very short descriptions:
<description>Arcon Overlay!</description>
or quite longer:
<description>A collection of Bazaar-related ebuilds, including release candidates of Bazaar.</description>
even ery long:
<description>Berkano overlay provides an overlay for Gentoo Linux with
ebuilds of bleeding edge software (such as live subversion builds) and other handy tools that are missing from the official portage tree. Areas of interest include multimedia and system administration.</description>

layman is a cli so it doesn't really care of the description lenght but
it's a pain to use in a GUI like PackageKit repository list. I think we
should introduce a <longdescription> field even with a lang parameter
like we already have in metadata.xml. So, description field will have to
be used for short descriptions (a few words) to complete the name of the
overlay like:
<description>experimental gnome ebuilds</description>

I don't think DTD have abilities to restrict field value lenght but even
if we will have to change a few <description> by hands, having a
<longdescription> field could help.

Sebastian, do you think you can add this to your set of changes ? (only
the new field in the DTD at the moment).

Thanks,
Mounir