GSoC Proposal

Thu Mar 28 06:52:17 UTC 2019

Resending the mail cause, previous mail was not sent to mailing list.
On Wed, Mar 27, 2019 at 2:10 PM Mojca Miklavec <mojca at macports.org> wrote:

> Dear Karan,
>
> I'm just answering a small part of your question here, a bit more about
> upt while CC-ing its author & potential mentor:
>
> On Tue, 26 Mar 2019 at 18:15, KARAN SHETH <karan.sheth at somaiya.edu> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>> (Another option for a project in Python would be bringing universal
>>> packaging tool [1] to MacPorts.)
>>>
>>
>> I looked in to this option and it looks very exciting, this is what I
>> have understood so far about bringing upt to MacPorts :
>> - A UPT-Frontend and Backend will have to be created for macports.
>>
>
> No, MacPorts in itself requires writing just a backend to support creating
> packages for existing frontends (currently there are frontends for pypi,
> ruby gems, cpan), but you usually need a separate backend for each of the
> frontends. However, it would be great to maybe create new frontends for
> npm, cabal, ... (npm would be particularly helpful). And if working on that
> project, it would make sense to concentrate on at least one frontend (ruby
> gems, npm, or something else) and try to make some awesome improvement of
> our packages. Our ruby packages are so outdated that they are literally
> useless, haskell support is horribly lagging behind as so much manual work
> is needed (we would like to provide the latest version of pandoc), and npm
> support is basically non-existent.
>
> The work would most likely include doing various improvements to UPT
> itself. In particular, the biggest problem would be how to keep packages
> up-to-date after the initial creation. We currently have 1000+ perl
> packages, plenty of python packages etc. and it's a pain to keep them up to
> date. When packages change, new dependencies are added, and none of that is
> currently automated. The current version of UPT support creating the inial
> version of the package, but there is no mechanism in place yet to keep
> package updated afterwards (incorporating other changes you might have made
> to the Portfile itself).
>
>
>> So the Frontend will take the Portfile from macports and convert it using
>> UPT.
>>
>
> No, the frontend would take a package from pypi / cpan / ruby gems / npm /
> ... and generate a Portfile.
>
>
>> But my doubt is, what is the UPT-Backend in this case, I know it should
>> be MacOS but like in the example given on UPT repo its converts json from
>> PYPI into Guix Pxg Definition.
>> So same way, what would UPT do in case of Macports?
>>
>
> Generate a Portfile
>
>
>> I may be completely wrong here as I have no prior knowledge about UPT.
>>
>
> You aren't expected to have any prior knowledge about it. It's relatively
> new, currently one-person project, but we had quite some GSOC projects in
> the part to do various conversion from X to Portfiles (from pypi, cpan),
> and supporting such a project would solve a lot more packaging nightmares
> all at once.
>
> This is some example code that was cooked together in cca. two hours:
>     https://github.com/mojca/upt-macports
>
> I would need to add some documentation, but once you set it up, the
> command like
>     upt package -f pypi -b macports upt
> would create a MacPorts package for the "upt" package (that's the last
> argument) as fetched from pypi (frontend pypi, backend macports, package
> upt).
>
>
>> Now seeing that I have two choices - first to continue making the django
>> app or to make upt, I will first look into UPT after my doubts raised above
>> have been clarified and then decide which route to take.
>>
>
> The choice is yours, you can also submit two proposals, but it makes most
> sense to really create one awesome proposal rather than trying to submit
> three, none of which you had a substantial time to do properly. (Or make
> one really awesome proposal, and a backup one.) If more than one student
> applies for the same project, we can only select one, but it really makes
> most sense to apply for the one that you are most likely to shine in.
>
> If you plan to apply for this project, what you might want to look into is
> approximately the following:
> - get familiar with cpan2port & pypi2port to generate perl and python
> packages (install it via macports, figure out how to use it, try to create
> a package, take a glimpse at the source code)
> - figure out how to create and / or modify perl / python / ruby / ...
> packages
> - get familiar with using "port livecheck", maybe find some outdated
> package that you are using and try to update it (if your interest is in
> python, search for ports inside "python")
> - try to install UPT (maybe via virtualenv & pip) and find out how to
> generate a package with an existing backend (the macports backend on the
> link above should also be able to generate super simplified python
> packages, but it's not yet complete)
> - you could check https://trac.macports.org/ticket/48324 /
> https://lists.macports.org/pipermail/macports-dev/2018-March/037531.html just
> to get an idea about haskell issues and lack of automation there
>

I looked into all that you had mentioned and gave a good thought about
which project to work on, and even though I am good at django and JS, I
would like to work on UPT as my main project as this seems more exciting to
me and I feel it can help many people and will speed up the porting process
(and if time permits, I will prepare a demo app for the Collect Build stats
too). But first I'll try and make a rough npm frontend. And regarding the
backend, I tried running your macport backend but got a few errors which I
was able to kind of solve but now that I understand a bit more I guess
I'll  give it one more try and fix any issues.

So, I am hoping that I have a rough code for the npm frontend and macport
backend ready in a day or at max two, which I will submit to you for
review.

This is what I have thought to do :
- For npm frontend:
    - get the json for any package from
https://registry.npmjs.org/<package-name>
    - parse it as per upt-frontend template

- For macport backend:
   - First I will fix the issues with the Pypi code and then add npm to it

Given all what I have tried out, I expect everything to go smoothly but if
I have any doubt's, I will get in touch.

I've also read about port livecheck but haven't tried it yet.

One concern/doubt I have is - does the Portfile generated always have to be
correct as I don't think that's achievable given the complexity sometimes,
but sure upt can be a starting point and with few manual edits Portfile can
be perfected.

Did I miss something or get anything wrong?

I just quickly listed some task, feel free to ask for help at any given
> point. For any questions specific to UPT I count on Cyril to help you.
> Michael: may I count on you for help with any general port-related
> questions?
>
> I didn't write anything about Django app in particular as you'll find tons
> of information in the mailing list archives, so please ask if you have any
> particular question there.
>
> Mojca
>
>
Thanks,
Karan Sheth

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