BLFS Package Dependencies

AUTHOR: "Chuck
Rhode" <crhode@excel.net>



DATE: 2004-04-29



LICENSE: Public Domain



SYNOPSIS: BLFS Package Dependencies.



DESCRIPTION:

Extract a database of software packages from the BLFS book and order
them in 

prerequisite installation sequence.



ATTACHMENTS:

* http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/attachments/blfs-deps/AuditPackages.py

* http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/attachments/blfs-deps/BLFS-Deps.toc

* http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/attachments/blfs-deps/DownloadPackages.py

* http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/attachments/blfs-deps/HarvestPackages.py

* http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/attachments/blfs-deps/InstallPackages.py

* http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/attachments/blfs-deps/MaskDonePackages.py

* http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/attachments/blfs-deps/PackageDB.py

* http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/attachments/blfs-deps/PrerequisitePackages.py

* http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/attachments/blfs-deps/ReportPackages.py

* http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/attachments/blfs-deps/UninstallPackages.py

* http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/attachments/blfs-deps/alllist.txt

* http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/attachments/blfs-deps/pkgs.dat

* http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/attachments/blfs-deps/xml.sax.expatreader.patch

* http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/attachments/blfs-deps/xml.sax.expatreader.patch.README





PREREQUISITES:

* BLFS 5.0

* python 2.3

* patch for xml.sax.handler (included)



HINT:

Beyond Linux from Scratch 5.0 contains a list of a couple hundred software packages with installation instructions and code examples.

Packages are cited in prerequisite order. Prerequisites are those packages that a given package depends on. When installing a given package, the User must be sure all of its prerequisites have already been installed. However, not all the preceding packages are necessarily prerequisite to the given one. The given package may be optional and in turn may depend on other optional packages. The User is expected to skip optional packages that he does not need. Prerequisites in turn may have their own prerequisites. Determining which packages are in the dependency cascade leading to the given package is non-trivial.

There are many code examples in BLFS. I have written some scripts to extract the code examples from the BLFS text and build a database of packages and prerequisites. A User may submit a package name and receive a script for installing not only the given package but also its prerequisites in prerequisite order.

`PrerequisitePackages.py`

PrerequisitePackages.py sorts and lists the dependency tree for a given package (or list of packages). For example:

echo linc > wishlist.txt
./PrerequisitePackages.py -W wishlist.txt

... would print the following report:

# Install packages in this order:
pkgconfig (pkgconfig-0.15.0)
GLib2 (GLib-2.2.3)
openssl (OpenSSL-0.9.7c)
linc (linc-1.0.3)
4 packages needed.

All of the parameters are optional:

./PrerequisitePackages.py -P pkgs.dat -W wishlist.txt -O wishlist.txt

... would expand the wishlist to include all prerequisites.

If omitted, -P defaults to pkgs.dat, the packages database. A version of pkgs.dat corresponding to BLFS 5.0 is included in the tarball for this hint.
If omitted, -W defaults to standard input.
If omitted, -O defaults to standard output.

More than one package may be named in wishlist.txt, separated by spaces or newlines. The package names are the ones in alllist.txt. To see if a package is in alllist.txt:

grep -i linc alllist.txt

A version of alllist.txt corresponding to BLFS 5.0 is included in the tarball for this hint.

`DownloadPackages.py`

DownloadPackages.py generates a wget script for downloading the requisite packages. For example:

./DownloadPackages.py -W wishlist.txt -O /usr/src/download.sh

... would place the script in the source library where it could be executed like this:

cd /usr/src chmod 755 download.sh ./download.sh

Here is what the script looks like:

wget ftp://ftp.netbuddy.org/linux/pkgconfig-0.15.0.tar.gz
wget ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk/v2.2/glib-2.2.3.tar.bz2
wget ftp://ftp.openssl.org/source/openssl-0.9.7c.tar.gz
wget ftp://ftp.openssl.org/source/openssl-0.9.7c.tar.gz
wget ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/linc/1.0/linc-1.0.3.tar.bz2

All of the parameters are optional:

./DownloadPackages.py -P pkgs.dat -W wishlist.txt -O download.sh

If omitted, -P defaults to pkgs.dat, the packages database.
If omitted, -W defaults to standard input. It should be the expanded wishlist output by PrerequisitePackages.py.
If omitted, -O defaults to standard output. It is a shell script.

`InstallPackages.py`

InstallPackages.py generates a script for installing the requisite packages. For example:

./InstallPackages.py -W wishlist.txt -O /usr/src/install.sh

... would place the script in the source library where it could be executed like this:

cd /usr/src chmod 755 install.sh ./install.sh

The script must be edited first, though. It contains install and configuration code fragments from BLFS. Where alternates are given, all options have been exhaustively expressed, and you must elide those not relevant to your installation. As nice as it is not to have to copy these code fragments from the book, it is not a substitute for reading and understanding the sections where they are described.

All of the parameters are optional:

./InstallPackages.py -P pkgs.dat -W wishlist.txt -O install.sh -S /usr/src

If omitted, -P defaults to pkgs.dat, the packages database.
If omitted, -W defaults to standard input. It should be the expanded wishlist output by PrerequisitePackages.py.
If omitted, -O defaults to standard output. It is a shell script.
If omitted, -S defaults to /usr/src, the source library.

Once the packages are successfully installed, add their names to the end of donelist.txt, a permanent file.

sed "s/ .*\$//" wishlist.txt | sed "s/\$/ /" | sed s/^/\^/ > patterns.txt grep -f patterns.txt alllist.txt >> donelist.txt

... where wishlist.txt contains the list of packages just recently installed. alllist.txt contains the list of all the packages in BLFS. alllist.txt is included in the tarball for this hint.

`MaskDonePackages.py`

The next time after you run PrerequisitePackages.py, you need to remove the names of the packages in donelist.txt from the output wishlist.txt to avoid reinstalling them. This may be accomplished with MaskDonePackages.py. For example:

./MaskDonePackages.py -W wishlist.txt -D donelist.txt -O wishlist.txt

... would restrict the wishlist to exclude already installed packages.

All of the parameters are optional:

If omitted, -W defaults to standard input. It should be the expanded wishlist output by PrerequisitePackages.py.
If omitted, -D defaults to donelist.txt.
If omitted, -O defaults to standard output.

MaskDonePackages.py does not update donelist.txt.

`UninstallPackages.py`

UninstallPackages.py generates a script for uninstalling the requisite packages.

All of the parameters are optional:

./UninstallPackages.py -P pkgs.dat -W wishlist.txt -O uninstall.sh -S /usr/src

If omitted, -P defaults to pkgs.dat, the packages database.
If omitted, -W defaults to standard input. It should be the list of packages to uninstall.
If omitted, -O defaults to standard output. It is a shell script.
If omitted, -S defaults to /usr/src, the source library.

`PackageDB.py`

PackageDB.py defines objects used by the other scripts.

`HarvestPackages.py`

HarvestPackages.py extracts a new packages database from the BLFS xml document.

The tarball for this hint includes pkgs.dat and alllist.txt, which are derived from BLFS 5.0 with this script and the next two. Unless you plan to install from a newer version of BLFS, you should not need to run these scripts. The swindle is that they are not guaranteed to work with any level of BLFS other than 5.0.

./HarvestPackages.py -I index.xml -P pkgs.dat

If omitted, -I defaults to ~/BLFS/BOOK/index.xml.
If omitted, -P defaults to standard output. It is the new output packages database.

`AuditPackages.py`

AuditPackages.py identifies any inconsistencies in the database generated automatically by HarvestPackages.py.

All parameters are optional:

./AuditPackages.py -P pkgs.dat -O rept.txt -A -C -U -S -L -I PkgName -F

If omitted, -P defaults to pkgs.dat, the packages database.
If omitted, -O defaults to standard output. It is a report.
-A reports packages that have no tarball.
-C reports packages that have no install code fragments.
-U reports packages that depend on unknown packages.
-S reports packages that are not in a dependency cascade leading to any other package.
-L lists the names of all packages.
-I reports packages that immediately depend on PkgName.
-F updates pkgs.dat (in place) with information that could not be extracted automatically from BLFS 5.0.

`ReportPackages.py`

ReportPackages.py writes a full report of the packages database.

./ReportPackages.py -P pkgs.dat -O rept.txt

If omitted, -P defaults to pkgs.dat, the packages database.
If omitted, -O defaults to standard output. It is a report.

`xml.sax.expatreader.patch`

The xml.sax.expatreader.patch for PyXML 0.8.3 or Python 2.3.3 is required by HarvestPackages.py and is included in the tarball for this hint. Please do not apply this patch unless you plan to run HarvestPackages.py. Most people shouldn't need to. To apply the patch, see xml.sax.expatreader.patch.README.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

* "Joern Abatz" <joern@abatz.de> for depsort hint for
BLFS 1.0 2003-09-23

* Zoltan for beta testing.



CHANGELOG:

[2004-04-19]

* First Release.

[2004-04-29]

* Fix DownloadPackages.py to write patch names correctly (per Zoltan).

* Fix PrerequisitePackages.py to suppress duplicates at outer level
(per Zoltan).

* Stipulate Python 2.3 or better.

* Correct location of attachments in this document.

* Amplify xml.sax.expatreader.patch.README to suggest that Python 2.3.2
is supported, too.