[MacPorts] SummerOfCode modified

MacPorts noreply at macports.org
Tue Mar 10 08:04:43 PDT 2009


Changed page "SummerOfCode" by raimue at macports.org from 91.11.197.27*
Page URL: <http://trac.macports.org/wiki/SummerOfCode>
Diff URL: <http://trac.macports.org/wiki/SummerOfCode?action=diff&version=89>
Revision 89

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Index: SummerOfCode
=========================================================================
--- SummerOfCode (version: 88)
+++ SummerOfCode (version: 89)
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@
 
 === Core Tasks ===
 
-==== Dependencies ====
+==== Dependencies ==== #dependencies
 
 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).
 
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@
 Programming languages: Tcl and C[[BR]]
 Potential mentors: TBD
 
-==== Logging ====
+==== Logging ==== #logging
 
 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.
 
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@
 Programming languages: Tcl and C[[BR]]
 Potential mentor: TBD
 
-==== Configuration files handling ====
+==== Configuration files handling ==== #configfiles
 
 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.
 
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@
 Programming languages: Tcl[[BR]]
 Potential mentor: raimue
 
-==== Scan for broken dynamic libraries for rebuild ====
+==== Scan for broken dynamic libraries for rebuild ==== #rev-upgrade
 
 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.
 
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@
 Programming languages: Tcl[[BR]]
 Potential mentor: raimue
 
-==== MacPorts Port ====
+==== MacPorts Port for self-management ==== #self-management
 
 The MacPorts port should be the source for updating a user's MacPorts
 installation.
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@
 Programming languages: Tcl and C[[BR]]
 Potential mentor: TBD
 
-==== Binaries ====
+==== Binaries ==== #binaries
 
 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.
 
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@
 Programming language: Tcl[[BR]]
 Potential mentors: TBD
 
-==== Graphical user interface ====
+==== Graphical user interface ==== #GUI
 
 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.
 
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@
 Programming languages: Tcl and any other language for the GUI part (e.g. ObjC)[[BR]]
 Potential mentors: armahg
 
-==== Images (Pkgview, depot-to-depot dependencies) ====
+==== Images (Pkgview, depot-to-depot dependencies) ==== #images
 
 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).
 
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@
 Programming language: Tcl[[BR]]
 Potential mentor: TBD
 
-==== Portfiles ====
+==== Portfiles ==== #Portfiles
 
 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.
 
@@ -130,14 +130,16 @@
 Programming language: Tcl[[BR]]
 Potential mentor: TBD
 
-==== Shell Environment ====
+==== Shell Environment ==== #shell-environment
 
-Add support for 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`. 
+Add support for 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`.
 
-Classification: medium task [[BR]]
+This task alone is most probably not enough for the whole Summer Of Code.
+
+Classification: easy task [[BR]]
 Potential mentors: TBD
 
-==== Automatic testing ====
+==== Automatic testing ==== #testing
 
 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.
 

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