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- Updated with entry for make aboutVERSION.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
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<!-- The LearningOnline Network with CAPA -->
<!-- $Id: readme.html,v 1.24 2011/03/01 03:43:32 raeburn Exp $ -->
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></meta>
<title>LON-CAPA Software Developer Guide</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>LON-CAPA Software Developer Guide</h1>
<p>
Created: <i>January 17, 2001</i>
<br />Last updated: <i>February 28, 2011</i>
</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="#Using_CVS">Using CVS</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#cvslog">Setting up cvs access</a></li>
<li><a href="#cvsupdate">Updating files (cvs update -d)</a></li>
<li><a href="#cvssave">Saving files (cvs commit)</a></li>
<li><a href="#cvsadd">Adding files (cvs add)</a></li>
<li><a href="#cvsadddir">Adding directories (cvs add/import)</a></li>
<li><a href="#cvsnotsure">What to do when you're not sure about your files
(cvs update)</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="#makeHTML">Viewing the software (make HTML)</a></li>
<li><a href="#makebuild">Compiling the software (make build)</a></li>
<li><a href="#loncapafiles">Adding/removing files from the LON-CAPA
installation (doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.lpml)</a></li>
<li><a href="#makeaboutVERSION">Updating the LON-CAPA Version number</a></li>
<li><a href="#configversusnonconfig">Configurable files versus
non-configurable files</a></li>
<li><a href="#makeinstall">Updating the non-configurable files on your
machine (make install)</a></li>
<li><a href="#makeconfiginstall">Updating the configurable files on your
machine (make configinstall)</a></li>
<li><a href="#makeRPM">Building RPMs (make RPM)</a></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><a name="Using_CVS" /><h2>Using CVS</h2><br />
These instructions assume that you are using a Linux or UNIX based
terminal.
<ul>
<li><a name="cvslog" />
<h3>Setting up cvs access</h3>
<p>
CVS needs to be part of your system environment in order to access the LON-CAPA CVS repository,
You can do this by:
</p>
<p>
<font color="#008800">
<tt>export CVS_RSH=ssh</tt><br />
<tt>export CVSROOT=:ext:USERNAME@source.lon-capa.org:/home/cvs</tt>
</font>
</p>
<br />
To actually issue CVS commands you will need to:
<br /><br />
<ol>
<li>Have installed the CVS client, e.g., <font color="#008800"><tt>yum install cvs</tt></font></li>
<li>Have been issued a CVS account, (send a request to the <a href="mailto:helpdesk@loncapa.org">LON-CAPA helpdesk</a>)</li>
<li>Have generated public and private keys via <font color="#008800"><tt>ssh-keygen -t dsa</tt></font> and sent the public key to the LON-CAPA helpdesk for installation on the CVS server.</li>
</ol>
<p>
The first time you use CVS, you need to CHECKOUT the repository.
Generally speaking, you need to checkout <tt>loncapa</tt> only once
per machine.
To check-out the repository, use the <tt>checkout</tt> command.
(Otherwise, just enter your CVS directory, <tt>cd loncapa</tt>.)
</p>
<p>
<font color="#008800">
<tt>cvs checkout loncapa</tt><br />
<tt>cd loncapa</tt>
</font>
</p>
</li>
<li><a name="cvsupdate" />
<h3>Using CVS: Updating files (cvs update -d)</h3>
<p>
After entering your CVS source tree (<tt>cd loncapa</tt>),
you should frequently update the software changes that
other people have made. This is done with the <tt>update</tt> command.
</p>
<p>
<font color="#008800">
<tt>
cvs update -d
</tt>
</font>
</p>
<p>
The <tt>cvs update</tt> command creates output
as it updates your CVS source tree. Common flags are
'U' and 'P'; they indicate that a file in your
<tt>loncapa</tt> directory is now updated with
changes made by another programmer.
</p>
<p>
<font color="#880000">
<tt>`U FILE'</tt></font></p>
<blockquote><font color="#880000">
The file was brought up to date in your <tt>loncapa</tt>.
<br />'U' is done for:
<br />* any file that exists in the repository but not in your source, and
<br />* files that you have not changed but are not the most recent versions
available in the repository.
<br />The network behavior of 'U' is that the entire new file is uploaded
from the CVS server.
</font></blockquote>
<p><font color="#880000"><tt>
`P FILE'
</tt></font></p>
<blockquote><font color="#880000">
Like `U', but the CVS server sends a patch instead of an entire file.
</font></blockquote>
<p>
'U' and 'P' essentially accomplish the same thing, just in
different ways.
</p>
<p>
Usually, when you do not <tt>cvs commit</tt> your code changes,
the <tt>update</tt> command will tell you that you have modified
your file with the 'M' flag.
</p>
<p><font color="#880000"><tt>
`M FILE'
</tt></font></p>
<blockquote><font color="#880000">
The file is modified in your working <tt>loncapa</tt> directory.
This is probably based on changes you made and have not yet
"cvs commit"-ed.
</font></blockquote>
<p>
Sometimes, it will occur that:
</p>
<ul>
<li>you have modified a file and not yet committed it</li>
<li>someone else *has* modified a file and *has* committed it</li>
</ul>
<p>
Generally speaking, this is <strong>your</strong> fault. It is your
responsibility to resolve conflicts. <tt>cvs update</tt> informs
you of a conflict with the 'C' flag.
</p>
<p><font color="#880000"><tt>
`C FILE'
</tt></font></p>
<blockquote><font color="#880000">
A conflict was detected while trying to merge your changes to FILE
with changes from the source repository.
</font></blockquote>
<p>
You will need to open the file and examine it; CVS will have added in
markup tags like "<<<<<<" to tell you about the merging
conflicts. (Sometimes, CVS will intelligently merge in other changes and
give you the 'M' flag, but many times you will have to manually edit
the file as just described.)
</p>
</li>
<li><a name="cvssave" />
<h3>Using CVS: Saving files (cvs commit)</h3>
<p>
<tt>cvs commit</tt> works to submit changes to an <strong>existing</strong>
file within the repository. If a file does not currently exist, then you
will first need to <tt>cvs add</tt> it as described in the following
section.
</p>
Running the <tt>cvs commit</tt> command without additional arguments will
commit all of your changes within the current directory and subdirectories.
<p><font color="#008800"><tt>
cvs commit
</tt></font></p>
<p>
A more precise approach to using <tt>cvs commit</tt> is to pass it specific
file names. (Usually you should do this.)
</p>
<p><font color="#008800"><tt>
cvs commit FILENAME
</tt></font></p>
<p>
Note that CVS typically invokes the
<a href="http://www.eng.hawaii.edu/Tutor/vi.html">vi</a> editor and solicits
comments about your latest changes to the software. Your comments should be
descriptive and informative. For example:
</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>BAD</strong> - "saving my work"</li>
<li><strong>GOOD</strong> - "implemented syntax checking of perl scripts
with -c flag"</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a name="cvsadd" />
<h3>Using CVS: Adding files (cvs add)</h3>
<p><font color="#008800"><tt>
cvs add FILENAME
</tt></font></p>
<p>
Then you can run <tt>cvs commit FILENAME</tt> and this file will
become an "official" part of LON-CAPA.
</p>
</li>
<li><a name="cvsadddir" />
<h3>Using CVS: Adding directories (cvs add/import)</h3>
<p><font color="#008800"><tt>
cvs add DIRECTORYNAME
</tt></font></p>
<p>
There is no need to run <tt>cvs commit</tt>. Directories immediately
become part of the LON-CAPA CVS source tree by only using the <tt>cvs add</tt>
command.
</p>
<p>
You should not ordinarily need to use the <tt>cvs import</tt> command.
If misused, <tt>cvs import</tt> can lead to the loss of code within
the repository.
</p>
</li>
<li><a name="cvsnotsure" />
<h3>Using CVS: What to do when you're not sure about your files
(cvs update -d)</h3>
<p>
Once in a while, multiple programmers may be working on the
same file. Most conflicts are avoidable if everybody regularly
<strong>commits</strong> their changes AND if everybody
regularly <strong>updates</strong> the CVS source tree they are working on.
</p>
<p>
If you are absent from programming for a few days, and
<strong>fail</strong> to run <tt>cvs update -d</tt> on your CVS source
repository, you have only yourself to blame if you find yourself writing
code in a file that is not up-to-date.
</p>
</li>
</ul></li>
<li><a name="makeHTML" />
<h2>Viewing the software (make HTML)</h2>
<p>
<strong>Commands</strong>
</p>
<p><font color="#008800"><tt>
cd loncom/build<br />
rm -Rf HTML <i>(or alternatively, "make clean")</i><br />
make HTML<br />
cd HTML<br />
<i>(look at the index.html file with a web browser such as Netscape)</i>
</tt></font></p>
<p>
<strong>General description of what happens</strong>
</p>
<p>
This is the actual make target code.
</p>
<pre>
<!-- LONCAPA MAKETARGET=HTML START -->
HTML:
install -d HTML
cp $(SOURCE)/doc/loncapafiles/*.gif HTML
cat $(SOURCE)/doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.lpml | \
perl lpml_parse.pl html development default "$(SOURCE)" '$(TARGET)' \
> HTML/index.html
<!-- LONCAPA MAKETARGET=HTML END -->
</pre>
<p>
What basically happens is that specially marked-up data in the LON-CAPA
cvs repository file <tt>doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.lpml</tt> is parsed
into a more viewable format by <tt>loncom/build/lpml_parse.pl</tt>. The
resulting file gives a very well organized view of all the files, directories,
links, ownerships, permissions, and brief documentation of what each
file does.
</p>
</li>
<li><a name="makebuild" />
<h2>Compiling the software (make build)</h2>
<strong>Commands</strong>
<p><font color="#008800"><tt>
cd loncom/build
<br />make build
</tt></font></p>
<p>
<strong>General description of what happens</strong>
</p>
<p>
This is the actual make target code.
</p>
<pre>
<!-- LONCAPA MAKETARGET=build START -->
build: Makefile.build pod2html.sh pod2man.sh
echo -n "" > WARNINGS
make -f Makefile.build all
make warningnote
Makefile.build: $(SOURCE)/doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.lpml lpml_parse.pl
cat $(SOURCE)/doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.lpml | \
perl lpml_parse.pl build $(CATEGORY) $(DIST) "$(SOURCE)" "$(TARGET)" \
> Makefile.build
<!-- LONCAPA MAKETARGET=build END -->
</pre>
<p>
<tt>loncom/build/lpml_parse.pl</tt> reads in all the build information out
of <tt>doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.lpml</tt>. A new Makefile named
<tt>loncom/build/Makefile.build</tt> is dynamically constructed.
This dynamically generated Makefile is then used to build and compile
all the software targets from source. This can take several minutes
(it depends on the speed of the machine you compile with).
</p>
<p>
<strong>Example</strong>
</p>
<p>
Here is information for one file <tt>tth.so</tt> provided in
<tt>doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.lpml</tt>.
</p>
<pre>
<file>
<source>loncom/homework/caparesponse/capa.so</source>
<target dist='default'>usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/capa.so</target>
<target dist='redhat7 redhat7.1'>usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.6.0/capa.so</target>
<categoryname>system file</categoryname>
<description>
shared library file for dynamic loading and unloading
</description>
<build trigger='always run'>
loncom/homework/caparesponse/commands
</build>
<dependencies>
caparesponse.c;
caparesponse.pm;
README;
Makefile.PL;
capa.i;
commands
</dependencies>
</file>
</pre>
<p>
<tt>loncom/build/lpml_parse.pl</tt> sees the <b>build</b> tags and sets up
a dynamic file <tt>Makefile.build</tt> to run the command inside the
<b>build</b> tags. The files listed inside the <b>dependencies</b> tags
are included in the <tt>Makefile.build</tt> so as to determine whether
or not there is a need to compile.
</p>
<p>
Here is an example of a dynamically generated <tt>Makefile.build</tt>
that builds two LON-CAPA files (one of which is <tt>tth.so</tt>).
</p>
<pre>
all: ../homework/caparesponse/capa.so ../modules/TexConvert/tthperl/tth.so
../homework/caparesponse/capa.so: ../homework/caparesponse/caparesponse.c ../homework/caparesponse/caparesponse.pm alwaysrun
cd ../homework/caparesponse/; sh ./commands
../modules/TexConvert/tthperl/tth.so: ../modules/TexConvert/tthperl/../tthdynamic/tthfunc.c ../modules/TexConvert/tthperl/../ttmdynamic/ttmfunc.c
cd ../modules/TexConvert/tthperl/; sh ./commands
alwaysrun:
</pre>
</li><li><a name="loncapafiles" />
<h2>Adding/removing files from the LON-CAPA installation
(doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.html)</h2>
<p>
<strong>To add and remove (and alter)</strong>
</p>
<p>
All that you have to do to alter the behavior of the installation is
edit a single file (<tt>doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.lpml</tt>).
Adding, removing, and altering files requires proper attention
to the syntax of file format of course.
</p>
<p>
<strong>File Format</strong>
</p>
<p>
The preceding <a href="#makebuild">"make build"</a> documentation
gives an example of a <b>file</b> entry describing one particular file.
All data within <tt>loncapafiles.lpml</tt> is specified according
to markup tags. The format and syntax of <tt>loncapafiles.lpml</tt>
is currently best described by the HTML documentation code at the beginning of
loncapafiles.html (as well as, by example, seeing how various
information is coded). All in all, the syntax is quite simple.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Philosophy and notes (the thing nobody reads)</strong>
</p>
<p>
Packaging the software from CVS onto a machine file system requires many
things:
</p>
<ul>
<li>documenting every component of the software,</li>
<li>handling CVS <u>source</u> to file system <u>target</u> information,</li>
<li>handling (according to a hierarchical scheme of grouping) file
ownership and permissions,</li>
<li>handling (according to a hierarchical scheme of grouping) directory
ownership and permissions,</li>
<li>handling symbolic links,</li>
<li>providing for multiple options of installation targets (e.g. RedHat versus
Debian),</li>
<li>providing for different file ownerships and permissions to apply
to the same file,</li>
<li>allowing system software documentation to be automatically generated
(see information on <a href="#makeHTML">"make html"</a>),</li>
<li>providing information in an easily adjustable form as new demands
are made on the software packaging system,</li>
<li>providing software package information (for RPM),</li>
<li>having information in a format that allows for troubleshooting
the current status of the machine file system,</li>
<li>allow for changes to the structure of the CVS repository,</li>
<li>and something that is simple enough for any one to immediately work with,
without having to learn any specifics (or hidden traps) of complicated
Makefile's or a new macro language (m4?).</li>
</ul>
<p>
I looked into, and tried, different ways of accomplishing the above
including automake and recursive make. The automake system seemed quite
complicated (and needlessly so in terms of this project since, by and large,
it works to coordinate many different types of build/compilation parameters
whereas we are more concerned with installation parameters). The other
alternative, recursive make,
has significant deficiencies since not all the information
is kept in one place, and there are significant levels of dependency
between all the things that must be done to keep software packaging
up to date. A particularly convincing article I found when looking into
much of this was
<a href="http://www.pcug.org.au/~millerp/rmch/recu-make-cons-harm.html">
"Recursive Make Considered Harmful" by Peter Miller</a>. Other complications
were that, at the time, it was unclear as to what categories
of software files we had, and whether or not the directory structure
of CVS would remain constant. With an ever-developing directory structure
to CVS, I preferred to organize the information on a per-file basis
as opposed to a per-directory basis.
Additionally, a standard big Makefile assumes certain "normalcy" to
the directory structure of different potential operating system directories
(RedHat vs. Debian).
</p>
<p>
If you take time to look at <tt>loncapafiles.lpml</tt>
(and perhaps run the <a href="#makeHTML">make HTML</a> command)
you will find that the organizing information according to the markup
syntax in <tt>loncapafiles.lpml</tt> is simple. Simple is good.
</p>
<p>
<tt>loncom/build/lpml_parse.pl</tt> is the script (invoked automatically
by the various targets in <tt>loncom/build/Makefile</tt>) that reads
<tt>doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.lpml</tt>. <tt>lpml_parse.pl</tt>
is capable of reading and returning different types of information
from <tt>loncapafiles.lpml</tt> depending on how <tt>lpml_parse.pl</tt>
is invoked. <tt>lpml_parse.pl</tt> has yet to have introduced new sources
of error, and has been tested in quite a number of ways. As with
any parser however, I remain paranoid.
</p>
<p>
Finally, some notes on the development.
<tt>lpml_parse.pl</tt> is very fast and styled after a state-based SAX-like
approach. I do eventually want to use a real XML/XSLT approach, however
I hesitate to make everyone everywhere install something like
<a href="http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=XML-Xalan">XML::Xalan</a>.
Also note that <tt>loncapafiles.lpml</tt> has a
DTD (<tt>loncom/build/lpml.dtd</tt>) against which it is valid.
I would also like to use more ENTITY's inside <tt>lpml.dtd</tt> but currently
the perl XML modules available at CPAN do not digest complex ENTITY's that
well.
</p>
<p>
The <tt>lpml_parse.pl</tt>-<tt>loncapafiles.lpml</tt>
combination has been highly efficient and error-free.
</p>
</li>
<li><a name="makeaboutVERSION" />
<h2>Updating files containing version number on your machine (make aboutVERSION)</h2>
<strong>Commands</strong>
<p><font color="#008800"><tt>
cd loncom/build
<br />make aboutVERSION
</tt></font></p>
<p>
<strong>General description of what happens</strong>
</p>
<p>
This is the actual make target code.
</p>
<pre>
<!-- LONCAPA MAKETARGET=aboutVERSION START -->
aboutVERSION:
cat $(SOURCE)/loncom/license/about.html | \
perl -e '$$d=`date +"%Y%m%d%H"`;chomp($$d);while(<>){s/(\<\!\-\- VERSION \-\-\>|\d+\.\d+\.CVS_HEAD\-\d{10})/$(SHOWVERSION)-$$d/; print;}' > \
$(SOURCE)/loncom/license/about.html.new
mv -v $(SOURCE)/loncom/license/about.html.new \
$(SOURCE)/loncom/license/about.html
cat $(SOURCE)/loncom/loncapa_apache.conf | \
perl -e '$$d=`date +"%Y%m%d%H"`;chomp($$d);while(<>){s/(\<\!\-\- VERSION \-\-\>|\d+\.\d+\.CVS_HEAD\-\d{10})/$(SHOWVERSION)-$$d/; print;}' > \
$(SOURCE)/loncom/loncapa_apache.conf.new
mv -v $(SOURCE)/loncom/loncapa_apache.conf.new \
$(SOURCE)/loncom/loncapa_apache.conf
<!-- LONCAPA MAKETARGET=aboutVERSION END -->
</pre>
<p>
The LON-CAPA Version number is updated in the following files:
<ul>
<li><tt>loncom/license/about.html</tt></li>
<li><tt>loncom/loncapa_apache.conf</tt></li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>
Updating the version information in these files means that visitors to the static HTML page: "About LON-CAPA" on your server will see which version of LON-CAPA you are running. The same information is also displayed on the dynamic log-in page generated by <tt>lonlogin.pm</tt>. Furthermore, the version of LON-CAPA running on your server can determine which course roles may be selectable on that server, if a course contains resource(s) and/or parameter(s) which require a specific version (or newer) of LON-CAPA. It is also possible for Domain Coordinators in another domain to configure their domain to limit hosting of sessions for users from their own domain to LON-CAPA servers in other domains which are running a specific LON-CAPA version (or newer).
</p>
<p> On a development server, i.e., one where LON-CAPA is built and installed from a CVS checkout, running make aboutVERSION will cause the version number to be set to something of the form: M.N.CVS_HEAD-YYYYMMDDHH, where M.N will be the version number of the next stable (major) release (e.g., if the current stable release is 3.1; the next release would be 3.2), and YYYYMMDDHH is the datestamp when make aboutVERSION was last run. Note: make aboutVERSION will update the about.html and loncapa_apache.conf in the installation directory tree; it is not until <tt>make install</tt> is run that files served directly by the web server (or used for configuration) are updated with the versions in that tree.
</p>
</li>
<li><a name="configversusnonconfig" />
<h2>Configurable files versus non-configurable files</h2>
<p>
<strong>Machine-specific information is the difference</strong>
</p>
<p>
The current list of configurable files for the LON-CAPA system is
<tt>/etc/httpd/conf/loncapa.conf</tt>,
<tt>/etc/ntp.conf</tt>,
<tt>/etc/krb.conf</tt>,
<tt>/etc/ntp/step-tickers</tt>,
<tt>/home/httpd/html/res/adm/includes/copyright.tab</tt>,
<tt>/home/httpd/html/res/adm/includes/un_keyword.tab</tt>,
<tt>/home/httpd/hosts.tab</tt>, and
<tt>/home/httpd/spare.tab</tt>.
</p>
<p>
All of these configurable files contain machine-specific information.
For instance, the overall LON-CAPA system relies on unique host IDs such
as msua3, s1, s2, msul1, and 103a1 (specified as a "PerlSetVar lonHostID"
field within <tt>/etc/httpd/conf/loncapa.conf</tt>).
Non-configurable files simply do NOT have machine-specific information.
</p>
<p>
<strong>The impact on updating software</strong>
</p>
<p>
What this means in terms of software updating is that:
</p>
<ul>
<li>non-configurable files can be simply overwritten with newer versions
(without "anything" else to worry about),</li>
<li>and configurable files must follow these steps to be safely
overwritten:
<ol>
<li>have their machine-specific information saved,</li>
<li>be overwritten, and then</li>
<li>have their machine-specific information restored.</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a name="makeinstall" />
<h2>Updating the non-configurable files on your machine (make install)</h2>
<strong>Commands</strong>
<p><font color="#008800"><tt>
cd loncom/build
<br />make install
</tt></font></p>
<p>
<strong>General description of what happens</strong>
</p>
<p>
This is the actual make target code.
</p>
<pre>
<!-- LONCAPA MAKETARGET=install START -->
install: TEST_hosts_tab Makefile.install Makefile
echo -n "" > WARNINGS
make -f Makefile.install SOURCE="$(SOURCE)" TARGET="$(TARGET)" \
directories
make -f Makefile.install SOURCE="$(SOURCE)" TARGET="$(TARGET)" files
make -f Makefile.install SOURCE="$(SOURCE)" TARGET="$(TARGET)" links
make SOURCE="$(SOURCE)" TARGET="$(TARGET)" \
NORESTORECONF="$(NORESTORECONF)" configinstall
make postinstall
make warningnote
echo "You can run 'make test' to see if your system is ready to go!"
Makefile.install: $(SOURCE)/doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.lpml lpml_parse.pl
cat $(SOURCE)/doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.lpml | \
perl lpml_parse.pl install $(CATEGORY) $(DIST) "$(SOURCE)" \
"$(TARGET)" > Makefile.install
<!-- LONCAPA MAKETARGET=install END -->
</pre>
<p>
For safety reasons (so as to preserve a machine's configuration),
configuration files are NOT installed during this step. This means
that files such as <tt>/etc/httpd/conf/loncapa.conf</tt>,
<tt>/home/httpd/html/res/adm/includes/copyright.tab</tt>, and
<tt>/home/httpd/spare.tab</tt> are not overwritten, but remain as old,
non-updated copies. (To automatically update these files and save/restore
their encoded machine configuration, you must run "make configinstall").
</p>
</li>
<li><a name="makeconfiginstall" />
<h2>Updating the configurable files on your machine (make configinstall)</h2>
<strong>Commands</strong>
<p><font color="#008800"><tt>
cd loncom/build
make configinstall
</tt></font></p>
<p>
<strong>General description of what happens</strong>
</p>
<p>
This is the actual make target code.
</p>
<pre>
<!-- LONCAPA MAKETARGET=configinstall START -->
configinstall: Makefile.configinstall
make -f Makefile.configinstall SOURCE="$(SOURCE)" TARGET="$(TARGET)" \
configfiles
if (test "0" = $(NORESTORECONF)); then \
perl loncaparestoreconfigurations suffix .lpmlnew; fi
Makefile.configinstall: $(SOURCE)/doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.lpml lpml_parse.pl
cat $(SOURCE)/doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.lpml | \
perl lpml_parse.pl configinstall $(CATEGORY) $(DIST) "$(SOURCE)" \
"$(TARGET)" > Makefile.configinstall
<!-- LONCAPA MAKETARGET=configinstall END -->
</pre>
<p>
Configuration files are installed during this step. This means
that files such as <tt>/etc/httpd/conf/loncapa.conf</tt>,
<tt>/home/httpd/html/res/adm/includes/copyright.tab</tt>, and
<tt>/home/httpd/spare.tab</tt> are overwritten. Before being overwritten,
a backup copy is made though. Information is read out of these
backup copies and restored to the new files by the
<tt>loncaparestoreconfigurations</tt> script. To ensure that
new file permissions and ownerships are installed, a final set of
<tt>chown</tt> and <tt>chmod</tt> commands are called for each of
the configuration files.
</p>
<p>
<strong>For the truly paranoid</strong>
</p>
<p>
If you are truly paranoid, you can just make the
<tt>Makefile.configinstall</tt> file and then save, copy,
and restore all the configuration values yourself.
<tt>loncaparestoreconfigurations</tt> is pretty smart though, has yet to
fail, and besides, when needed, backup copies are made.
</p>
</li><li><a name="makeRPM" />
<h2>Building RPMs (make RPM)</h2>
<p>
LON-CAPA is currently installed through "intelligent tarballs".
What I am describing now is part of an earlier (and perhaps future) effort
involving RPMs.
</p>
<p>
<strong>Commands</strong>
</p>
<p><font color="#008800"><tt>
cd loncom/build<br />
rm -Rf BinaryRoot <i>(or alternatively, "make clean")</i><br />
make RPM<br />
<i>(to subsequently install, you can type commands like
"rpm -Uvh --force LON-CAPA-base-3.1-1.i386.rpm")</i>
</tt></font></p>
<p>
<strong>Configuration files</strong>
</p>
<p>
Configuration files are automatically saved with the file suffix
".rpmsave". So <tt>/etc/httpd/conf/loncapa.conf</tt> is saved as
<tt>/etc/httpd/conf/loncapa.conf.rpmsave</tt>.
The <tt>loncaparestoreconfigurations</tt> script should work to restore
configurations in this case. However, please note that if you install an RPM
twice without restoring your configuration, you will overwrite the
".rpmsave" files.
</p>
<p>
<strong>General description of what happens</strong>
</p>
<p>
This is the actual make target code.
</p>
<pre>
<!-- LONCAPA MAKETARGET=RPM START -->
RPM: BinaryRoot base_rpm_file_list
cat $(SOURCE)/doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.lpml | \
perl lpml_parse.pl make_rpm $(CATEGORY) $(DIST) $(SOURCE) $(TARGET) \
> base_customizerpm.xml
cat base_rpm_file_list.txt | perl make_rpm.pl base 3.2 1 '' '' \
BinaryRoot base_customizerpm.xml
BinaryRoot: base_rpm_file_list
make TARGET='BinaryRoot' NORESTORECONF='1' install
base_rpm_file_list:
cat $(SOURCE)/doc/loncapafiles/loncapafiles.lpml | \
perl lpml_parse.pl rpm_file_list $(CATEGORY) $(DIST) $(SOURCE) \
'BinaryRoot' | sort > base_rpm_file_list.txt
<!-- LONCAPA MAKETARGET=RPM END -->
</pre>
<p>
A <tt>BinaryRoot</tt> directory is generated that reflects the locations,
ownerships, permissions, and contents for all the CVS source
files, compiled binaries, directories, and links as they should eventually
occur on the '/' filesystem location.
</p>
<p>
<tt>loncom/build/make_rpm.pl</tt> (also available at
<a href="http://www.cpan.org">CPAN</a>) is robust (tested over the
span of months) and, unlike other automated RPM-builders, cleanly
builds new RPMs without any after-effect of temporary files left
on the system. The generated RPM is labeled in the format
LON-CAPA-base-(VERSION)-(RELEASE).i386. VERSION is specified inside the
Makefile.
</p>
</li>
</ol>
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