Changes between Version 113 and Version 114 of SummerOfCode


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Timestamp:
May 23, 2009, 4:45:24 AM (15 years ago)
Author:
raimue (Rainer Müller)
Comment:

List projects

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  • SummerOfCode

    v113 v114  
    88
    99Information about the past years can be found at SummerOfCodeArchive.
     10
     11== Projects 2009 ==
     12
     13The following students have been accepted for this year:
     14
     15 * [wiki:enl Dmitry Gorbik], Logging
     16 * [wiki:juanger Juan Germán Castañeda Echevarría], GUI
    1017
    1118== Applications for SoC ==
     
    5057==== Dependencies ==== #dependencies
    5158
    52 This task consists of implementing a new dependencies engine for MacPorts. The current dependency engine properly deals with installing packages, but it does not deal satisfactorily with dependencies on variants (and versions), uninstalling and upgrading. This very challenging task requires a complete formalization of the use cases (installation, upgrade, uninstallation) and of the user needs before any implementation, as well as a deep understanding of the dependency relations (required for fetching, building, configuring; static and dynamic linking; dependence at runtime).
    53 
    54 Classification: very challenging task[[BR]]
    55 Programming languages: Tcl and C[[BR]]
    56 Potential mentors: TBD
    57 
    58 ==== Logging ==== #logging
    59 
    60 Currently MacPorts has no notion of logging of build activities of a given port or sets of ports. When a a build is attempted but an error keeps it from completing, there's no way to track the problem other than the build progress that was output to the terminal, if verbose mode was requested in the first place. Otherwise, the build environment has to be pruned and the build attempted once again to even get a look at the precise error message. This is particularly problematic when automated builds are attempted, since there's usually no one around to have a look at the failure spew. An infrastructure to remedy this situation and endow MacPorts with a rich set of logging capabilities has to be developed to open up the door to true automated build runs of large sets of ports and thus to packaging of binaries, since with logging we'd have a fully reliable way of catching, reporting and processing of all sorts of fetch/configure/build/destroot/install/etc errors.
    61 
    62 This could be extended with the interaction with a server side application like MPWA that could consume these logs (read MPWA proposal). A more detailed draft of this task can be found on the LoggingProposal page.
    63 
    64 Classification: medium task to relatively challenging[[BR]]
    65 Programming languages: Tcl and C[[BR]]
    66 Potential mentor: blb
    67 
    68 ==== Configuration files handling ==== #configfiles
    69 
    70 MacPorts has no way to track configuration files. Currently if a configuration file is part of a port it will get overwritten on every upgrade which makes it less useful. At the moment, many ports only install default configuration files and the user has to copy it to the original location. But this always requires manual action and the user is not informed of updates in this configuration file.
    71 
    72 For this task, investigate how other package management systems handle this. Find the best way to support it in MacPorts and implement it. See also #2365.
    73 
    74 Classification: easy to medium task[[BR]]
    75 Programming languages: Tcl[[BR]]
    76 Potential mentor: raimue
    77 
    78 ==== Scan for broken dynamic libraries for rebuild ==== #rev-upgrade
    79 
    80 Upgrading any port can naturally break its dependents if using dynamic libraries. The only way to fix this is currently rebuilding all dependents, no matter if necessary or not. MacPorts should get a new command to scan installed dynamic libraries and binaries for linker errors and mark the corresponding port for rebuild. After checking all files, broken ones should get rebuild in the correct order. Probably it has to do the check again after each set of rebuilds.
    81 
    82 {{{
    83 port rev-upgrade [portname]
    84 }}}
    85 
    86 If you are familiar with Gentoo, this would be the equivalent of the revdep-rebuild command. See #17473 for more information.
    87 
    88 Classification: easy to medium task[[BR]]
    89 Programming languages: Tcl[[BR]]
    90 Potential mentor: raimue
    91 
    92 ==== MacPorts Port for self-management ==== #self-management
    93 
    94 The MacPorts port should be the source for updating a user's MacPorts
    95 installation.
    96 
    97 Currently the MacPorts port is used to build the .dmg installer for MacPorts that is used for the initial installation of MacPorts, and port uses the "selfupdate" mechanism for maintaining the MacPorts installation. The selfupdate mechanism is (at least not documented as such) not accessible through the MacPorts API and does not use the MacPorts mechanisms for maintaining ports
    98 
    99 Classification: challenging task[[BR]]
    100 Programming languages: Tcl and C[[BR]]
    101 Potential mentor: blb
    102 
    103 ==== Check dependencies after destroot ==== #depcheck
    104 
    105 MacPorts currently has trace mode to check which files are accessed during build and if they are in the dependency chain. This requires injecting the tracelib in all code that is run and interception all open calls and make checks on the pathnames which slows down the procedure. This task is about creating another feature for verifying the dependencies of a build.
    106 
    107 A new phase would be created which is to be run after the destroot phase to verify files.
    108  * It would iterate over all binaries and dynamically linked libraries in the destroot which are going to be installed and check the recorded paths against the dependency chain.
    109  * It will report broken symlinks, e.g. those pointing to the destroot
    110 Any problems found should be reported.
    111 
    112 This would be great to do a quick check if the dependencies are met without the effort from trace mode. It could also help to identify unnecessary dependencies. If this actually runs fast enough it could as well be enabled by default, although it should only be necessary for maintainers.
    113 
    114 Classification: medium task[[BR]]
    115 Programming languages: Tcl and C[[BR]]
    116 Potential mentor: raimue
    117 
    118 ==== Binaries ==== #binaries
    119 
    120 MacPorts project does not provide binaries yet (installation of software without compiling them). This project consists in working in concert (or cooperatively) with whomever does (virtual chroot) to setup a mechanism to automatically build packages, send reports on failures and implement a distribution mechanisms to allow users to fetch binary packages. This task could extend to support universal binaries, cross-testing (building on an intel box and testing on a powerpc box) and extending the livecheck mechanism to automatically send reports when ports are updated.
    121 
    122 See also [wiki:MPAB MacPorts AutoBuild].
    123 
    124 Classification: relatively challenging to challenging task[[BR]]
    125 Programming language: Tcl[[BR]]
    126 Potential mentors: TBD
    127 
    128 ==== Graphical user interface ==== #GUI
    129 
    130 Come up with a front-end for installing packages (or building ports, where no package exists) for naive end-users. See also [http://ihack.us/2008/03/24/building-a-gui-for-macports/ drernie's post] about MacPorts GUIs. The  [http://trac.macports.org/wiki/armahg MacPorts.Framework] and [http://trac.macports.org/browser/users/rhwood/Pallet Pallet] projects contain some of the already done ground work for building such a GUI. Also see [wiki:MacPortsGUIFAQ GSoC 2009 MacPorts GUI "FAQ"] for some useful details on what this project would entail.
    131 
    132 Classification: major task[[BR]]
    133 Programming languages: Tcl and any other language for the GUI part (e.g. ObjC)[[BR]]
    134 Potential mentors: armahg
    135 
    136 ==== Images (Pkgview, depot-to-depot dependencies) ==== #images
    137 
    138 MacPorts implements what we call the Image mode where software are stored in a depot (e.g. `/opt/local/var/db/dports/software/gawk/3.1.5_2/opt/local/bin/gawk`). For the moment, this functions like an archive and files are hardlinked to their active location (/opt/local/bin/gawk). If port A depends on dynamic library B.dylib from port B, it actually links to /opt/local/lib/B.dylib. The idea of this task is to figure out a way for port A to be linked to the library in the depot and to work even if port B is not active. That is to say that if port foo depends on version 1.2.3 of port bar, it should be compiled and linked in such a way that it's wired to the depot location of bar, not the "activated" location.  That will finally fix the fragility problem where deactivating port bar vers n-1 in order to install port bar vers n (because other things depend on n) won't also require breaking everything that relies on n-1. This mechanism also has additional advantages such as limiting the unavailability time to a minimum, especially when upgrading libraries every other package depends on (such as gettext).
    139 
    140 Classification: challenging to very challenging task[[BR]]
    141 Programming language: Tcl[[BR]]
    142 Potential mentor: TBD
    143 
    144 ==== Portfiles ==== #Portfiles
    145 
    146 Sweep through all Portfiles and look for useful opportunities to add more built-in Tcl functions that make Portfiles more (usefully) terse, powerful, flexible or easier to write.  I'm sure there is an entirely family of helper functions yet to be written here.
    147 
    148 Classification: medium task[[BR]]
    149 Programming language: Tcl[[BR]]
    150 Potential mentor: TBD
    151 
    152 ==== Shell Environment ==== #shell-environment
    153 
    154 Add support for providing basic and port-provided environmental services to users in the `~/.profile`, `~/.cshrc`, and `~/.xinitrc` files, so that instead of manipulating the user's .profile to modify certain paths, the installer could append "`source /opt/local/etc/bash.rc`" to the end of a user's .profile file and that bash.rc would source all the files in `/opt/local/etc/bash.d`.
    155 
    156 This task alone is most probably not enough for the whole Summer Of Code.
    157 
    158 Classification: easy task [[BR]]
    159 Potential mentors: raimue
    160 
    161 ==== Automatic testing ==== #testing
    162 
    163 MacPorts project currently includes a [source:trunk/base/tests test framework] to test features of the infrastructure. However, the tests do not cover all the code and they are not executed on an automatic basis. This task consists of extending the test framework and could be broadened to develop a code coverage technology for MacPorts to make the infrastructure more robust to future changes.
    164 
    165 Classification: relatively easy to very challenging[[BR]]
    166 Programming languages: Tcl, C[[BR]]
    167 Potential mentor: raimue
    168 
    169 ==== MacPorts Web Application (MPWA) ==== #mpwa
    170 
    171 A very good start has been made on a Web Application for MacPorts to serve as a basis for easier user submission and maintenance of ports, not to mention monitoring of port build status, browsing of ports, etc. This work is known as MPWA and is written in Ruby on Rails. This task is to complete the work on MPWA so that it is usable for day to day usage by the MacPorts community. Work is needed on user credentials and authentication, port dependency  integration, port submission and tracking, etc. This is a very exciting project and can help MacPorts scale to support a larger community.
    172 
    173 Read more about the [source:contrib/mpwa/doc MPWA design and model] and look at the [source:contrib/mpwa/ existing code].
    174 
    175 Classification: moderate, with good follow through vision, and architecture required[[BR]]
    176 Programming languages: Ruby, perhaps a bit of Tcl[[BR]]
    177 Potential mentor: jberry
    178 
    179 === Additional tasks ===
    180 
    181 ==== Task A1: Ports ====
    182  * Porting of additional packages to MacPorts
    183  * Cleanup and/or remove obsolete ports
    184 
    185 Classification: medium task[[BR]]
    186 Potential mentors: TBD
    187 
    188 ==== Task A2: Documentation and Website ====
    189  * Improve MacPorts documentation
    190  * Improve MacPorts website
    191  * Custom Trac plugins
    192 
    193 '''Note''': Pure documentation proposals are not allowed by Google.
    194 
    195 Classification: minor task[[BR]]
    196 Programming languages: php, python[[BR]]
    197 Potential mentors: TBD
     59This task consists of implementing a new dependencies engine for MacPorts. The current dependency engine properly deals with installing packages, but it does not deal satisfactorily with dependencies on variants (and versions), uninstalling and upgrading. This very challenging task requires a complete formalization of the use cases (installation, upgrade, uninstallation) and of the user needs before any implementation, as well as a deep understanding of the dependency relations (required for f