121 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
121 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
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title = "BaguetteOS, hand book"
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paginate_by = 5
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# Rant about software complexity <side-note>*or why reading a file now requires docker*</side-note>
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*I wanted to manipulate a YAML file on my Ubuntu, here's my story.*
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The only thing I needed was to read a YAML file to extract a single field in it, nothing complicated.
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So, I tried to install `yq`.
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I'm on Ubuntu, I use `apt`.
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```zsh
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# apt install yq
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No apt package "yq", but there is a snap with that name.
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Try "snap install yq"
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```
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So, `apt` doesn't know how to install this application.
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Fine, this is a developer tool, maybe it is too recent for my *kinda* old long-term-support OS.
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Still, this message tells us a couple of things:
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1. we know we do not provide all the available tools<br />
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And this is perfectly fine.
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We may not have every tool packaged at a moment, or available for every OS version.
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2. ... but we **know how to provide the tool to you anyway**<br />
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That part is weird.
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Why don't you give me the package yourself then, since it will be installed on my machine regardless if someone tested it?
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Why does another package manager do the job instead of the package manager of my OS?<br />
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*Snap seems to be a good substitute to `apt`, <u>says `apt`</u>*<br />
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Now I have 2 package managers, one for *supported* applications from my OS and the other by... no matter who, but hey they tell me it's secure and stuff.
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Great!
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OK, now I will use an alternate package manager. Fine.
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```zsh
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# snap install yq
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```
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I do have `yq` on my machine now, **hooray**!
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```zsh
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$ yq read shard.yml
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22:54:42 main [ERRO] open shard.yml: permission denied
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```
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Wait, what? I do have the permissions, it's my own file!
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Let's check what's the developer has to say...
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```
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Snap notes
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yq installs with strict confinement in snap, this means it doesn't have direct access to root files.
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```
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*(Note: I'm not even in root files here.)*
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```
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To read root files you can:
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1. read from standard input
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2. use Sponge
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```
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*(I don't know what sponge is, and I frankly don't want to, I just want to read a stupid file)*
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```
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3. write in a temporary file
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```
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Great.
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```zsh
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# snap remove yq
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yq removed
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```
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What other solution to the problem does the developer explore? **Docker**.
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<img src="/no.png" alt="No." class="meanie-img" />
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No.
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I won't install an application designed to run virtual machines **just to read a file**.
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Making it complicated to provide a simple application **written in a language designed to deploy applications easily** is an un-human achievement.
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Thanks Cthulhu, I guess.
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# Okay okay, let's try to answer this question: who's to blame here?
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- The developer?<br />
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He tried to provide its application for everybody, including people installing applications only through `snap` and `docker`.
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AFAIK, at no point he is responsible for this mess.
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- `Snap` and `Docker`?<br />
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They respond to simple requests, they have a purpose.
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**Some things were not possible on the different OSs, so they were developed.**
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There was a need behind those.
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- The original package manager...<br />
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If there was a way to get my application, it **should have been** through the OS package manager.
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Since it wasn't possible, I had to learn how to get the application from non trusted sources with a parasit application running over the very simple binary provided by the developer.
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To get the application I downloaded a binary version, compiled statically, directly from the github page.
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<u>Am I on Windows in the early 00's?</u>
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Is my package manager still **useful**?
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Another possibility would have been to download the application from the package distribution of the language used.
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How long has this practice been used?
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That's just a way of skipping packaging for an OS.
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Apparently, it seems okay for developers to provide a `Snap` package and a `Docker` image for a simple, statically compiled binary that has **no dependencies** whatsoever, but not a single OS package.
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Maybe, the complexity of OS packaging is way too high.
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What's sure is that this developer did not seem lazy...
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# Conclusion: package managers failed us
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*and that's the only real conclusion we can have here*
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**Package management should be performed by the OS package manager.**
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OSs should be that simple.
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But hey, now we have `Baguette` and, above all, slotting.
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Give it a try.
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