diff --git a/content/baguette/index.md b/content/baguette/index.md
index 9560bae..6c8aad9 100644
--- a/content/baguette/index.md
+++ b/content/baguette/index.md
@@ -272,15 +272,13 @@ There is a strict separation between core system and third party software.
All our tools are designed to be simple to use, to understand, to read.
Feel free to provide a feedback.
-TODO: spec files, the file format used in `package`, `packaging` and `service`.
-
---
**Spec files.** *our declarative format*
Before presenting our tools, here a file format named `spec` that we tend to use when relevant.
It is *declarative*: we tend not to tell instructions how to do things (copy this file here, download this, etc.) but to describe something (url of the project is `https://example.com/xxx`).
-This way, we can provide an easy to understand format which looks like YAML a lot, but allows us to do much more.
+The `spec format` is only composed of variables, lists, code block and named sections.
Here a quick example.
```yaml
@@ -299,14 +297,14 @@ list:
- c
```
-And now, we can add `block sections` to it: sometime we do want to tell instructions.
+This looks a lot like YAML, but now we add `code block` to it: because sometimes we do want to tell instructions.
```yaml
# We have the URL of the tarballs for a software
software-url: 'https://example.com/my-software/'
# ... and we want to get its last version number
-# "@watch" is a section, the name "watch" has a meaning in the application reading the file
+# "@watch" is a block, the name "watch" has a meaning in the application reading the file
@watch
# the following is simple shell scripting
curl %{software-url} -o- 2>/dev/null | \
@@ -314,23 +312,27 @@ software-url: 'https://example.com/my-software/'
tail -1
```
-Sometime, we want to refer to a file (or directory), and add metadata to it.
+Sometimes, we want to refer to a file (or directory) and add metadata to it: here `named sections`.
+
```yaml
# as for "@watch", "%configuration" has a meaning in the application reading the file
-# this time, the block is named
+# this time, the block has an arbitrary name
%configuration postgresql.conf
- # within a named block, we find simple declarations as outside the block
+ # within a named section, we find simple declarations as outside the block
name: database configuration
creation-command: my-script.sh -a -b -c
```
+Next, the usage in practice: [packaging](#packaging), [service](#service).
+
---
TODO: explains why it's different / better than other package managers.
+
**[Package][package]: our package manager.**
-Package covers the basics: install, remove, search and provide informations about a package, and it creates rootfs.
-Package knows the minimal set of binaries and configuration required to build the target, so it only installs the minimal environment to perform compilation.
+`Package` covers the basics: install, remove, search and provide informations about a package.
+`Package` can create minimal rootfs, to bootstrap BaguetteOS on another system or to create test environments for example.
Package provides slotting by default: no need for custom environments for each software.
@@ -339,37 +341,37 @@ The database format contains `world`, `installed`, `[package-name]/[slot]/manife
Package's configuration is a list of repositories, authorized package signing keys and packaging variables (cflags, makeflags, and so on).
+Finally, `Package` can easily be expanded, as it only relies on a few hundred lines of Crystal code.
+
---
-**[Packaging][packaging]: to create packages.**
-Packaging uses simple, declarative recipe files, here some examples: [hello][recipe-hello], [dhcpcd][recipe-dhcpcd], [alsa-utils][recipe-alsautils].
-The only required parameters are `name` and `sources`.
+**[Packaging][packaging]: creates packages.**
+Any OS needs a way to create packages to share software, either by sharing sources that need to be compiled or by sharing pre-compiled binaries.
+As BaguetteOS is design to provide quickly usable systems, we choose to provide binaries.
+`Packaging` uses simple, declarative recipe files with the `spec format` [as we saw earlier](#spec-format).
+`Packaging` has a few advantages compared to most used packaging tools:
+- declarative recipes abstact OS specifics
+ The same recipe may work for many **native packaging systems** (many OSs), given that packagers provide the right target running dependencies.
+ This only requires to provide a backend for the target package manager.
+- recipe readability is great
+ A few variable declarations are better than a dozen lines of code.
+- trivial shell script patterns become automated
+ `Autotools` and `cmake` build systems are detected; packagers should only provide specific parameters for each project.
+- tooling may evolve, very few recipes will be require to change
+ Everybody wants to change its build system?
+ *(Besides possibly broken tools and possible workarounds,)* this is not a problem for the recipe, just `packaging`.
+- it creates hash'ed and signed packages by default
+ You need your own set of cryptographic keys, which is created at first use.
+- it creates repositories (automatic at first compilation), helping people maintaining their own set of tools
+ Change the first `prefix` in your [packaging configuration](#packaging-host-config), compile your first package and you have your repository.
+ That is that simple.
-```yaml
-# GNU Hello example program
-name: hello
-version: 2.10
-release: 2
-sources: https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/hello/hello-%{version}.tar.gz
-
-dependencies:
- - gettext
-
-build-dependencies:
- - make
-
-options:
- - configure: --disable-nls
-
-@watch
- curl 'https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/hello/' -o- 2>/dev/null |
- sed -n "/hello-.*\.tar\.gz/{s/\.tar\.gz.*//;s/.*hello-//;p}" |
- tail -1
-```
+
-Packaging creates build environments to test packages before validation.
+**`Packaging` build environments**
+`Packages` creates build environments to test packages before validation.
It works as follow:
1. creation of a `/tmp/packaging/build-UUID/` directory
2. sources are downloaded, extracted then compiled
@@ -379,14 +381,152 @@ It works as follow:
`Packaging` uses `package` to create low-cost build environments since we hardlink binaries into the building rootfs, which is inspired by the [proot][proot] tool on OpenBSD.
+In this case, `package` only installs the minimal set of binaries required by the package to build.
+Besides the target application, a building environment size is only a few kilobytes.
-TODO.
-Packaging configuration is simple.
+**`Packaging` configuration**. *common configuration for your packages*
+`Packaging` may be configured globally for your system with the file `/etc/packaging.conf` which contains the following:
-TODO.
-
-Packaging recipes.
+```YAML
+# Configuration file for `packaging`
+
+# where to send built packages
+packages-directory: /usr/local/pkg/
+# where to download sources
+sources-directory: /usr/local/src/
+
+# prefixes for `packaging` running environment and child processes
+prefixes:
+ # the first prefix is the default slot used for building application
+ - /usr/baguette/
+ - /
+
+# list of environment variables we want to have when building
+environment:
+ # you may choose another compiler, provide some CFLAGS, etc.
+ - CC: clang
+ - CFLAGS: -Os -Wall
+
+ # next three have special meaning
+ # to provide parameters to the `./configure` script when building
+ - configure: --disable-nls --without-gettext
+
+ # to provide parameters to the `make` command
+ - make:
+
+ # to provide parameters to the final `make install` command
+ - make install:
+
+# wanna build for another system? not a problem, just add the backend (we currently have `apk` and `package`)
+package-manager: package
+```
+That's it. You know all about `packaging` configuration.
+These parameters may be override by recipes.
+
+
+**`Packaging` recipes.** *we need to create packages*
+A recipe is the way to reproduce something; here we want to create a package, the recipe should provide all data necessary to be able to reproduce the package.
+This means at least having a name for the software and a version (they appear in the package name) and sources (software code).
+Let's take an example.
+
+
+```yaml
+# GNU Hello program
+name: hello # software name
+version: 2.10 # software version
+release: 2 # recipe release: incremented when the recipe change for the current version of the software
+
+# the description will appear in the package information we can retrieve with `package`
+description: "This is the GNU Hello program."
+
+# sources may be multiple: you may want to add arbitrary files along the tarball
+sources: https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/hello/hello-%{version}.tar.gz
+
+# we provide running dependencies: the program needs these to `run`
+dependencies:
+ - gettext
+
+# we provide build dependencies: the program needs these to `be compiled` for the package
+# no need to require these dependencies for a simple user installing the program
+build-dependencies:
+ - make
+
+# if we want to add or override compilation options
+options:
+ - configure: --disable-nls
+
+# feels like déjà vu, right?
+# "watch" code block helps to check if the recipe covers the last software version
+@watch
+ curl 'https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/hello/' -o- 2>/dev/null |
+ sed -n "/hello-.*\.tar\.gz/{s/\.tar\.gz.*//;s/.*hello-//;p}" |
+ tail -1
+```
+
+This was [a real example][recipe-hello], and not the simplest one.
+Most of our recipes currently look like this:
+
+```YAML
+name: dhcpcd
+version: 8.0.3
+sources: https://roy.marples.name/downloads/dhcpcd/dhcpcd-%{version}.tar.xz
+```
+That's it.
+Yes, we can add a few meta-data, but this is a working recipe.
+Configuration, compilation and packaging are done without providing anything else.
+The only required parameters are `name`, `sources` and `version`.
+
+
+
+Sometimes, developers are assholes and force you to fix their build system.
+When manual operations really are required, you can use `@configure`, `@build` and `@install` code blocks.
+Let's see an example with a special snowflake… like `perl`.
+```YAML
+# in our example, we want to configure the build
+@configure
+ # we set some script execution parameters: exit at any error, print everything you do
+ set -e -x
+
+ # we currently are in `/tmp/packaging/build-UUID/`
+ # now we enter the directory created by the tarball extraction, where the build occurs
+ cd perl-%{version} # we can interpolate variables with this: %{}
+
+ # Perl needs a few environment variables for configuration
+ BUILD_ZLIB=0
+ BUILD_BZIP2=0
+ BZIP2_LIB=/usr/lib
+ BZIP2_INCLUDE=/usr/include
+ export BUILD_ZLIB BUILD_BZIP2 BZIP2_LIB BZIP2_INCLUDE
+
+ # now we can launch the `configure` script…
+ # … but wait kids, that's not `configure`, that is `Configure` (see the capitalized C?)
+ # this is a totally different and very special script, but you should love it anyway
+ ./Configure -des -Dcccdlflags='-fPIC' \
+ -Dcccdlflags='-fPIC' \
+ -Dccdlflags='-rdynamic' \
+ # ... some long and uninteresting list of very specific parameters because we are Perl, we are historic and stuff
+```
+
+Now you know how to deal with `@configure`, `@build` and `@install`: these are code blocks allowing you to fix this kind of problems.
+Non standard build operations happen from time to time, and code blocks help you overcome this.
+When a lot of packages have the same workarounds, we think about detection and integration into `packaging`, so we can keep only specifics into recipes.
+
+If you want to investigate a bit more, you can check [our recipe repository][recipes].
+Feel free to improve these recipes with meta-data, `@watch` code blocks… contributions are welcome.
+
+
+TODO: talk about creating a repository.
+
+
+**Future of `packaging`.** *let's be even more declarative*
+As we saw, `packaging` allows maintainers to create very simple and **readable** recipes.
+Sometimes we have to confront ourselves to poorly designed build systems, but we can hack a bit.
+In the future, manual operations should be reduced even more:
+- by adding a few other parameters to the environment
+ This imply to check for patterns in the recipes and to provide workarounds.
+- by adding new code blocks *before* the `configuration`, `build` and `install` steps
+ This would allow performing a few hacks in the directory (a quick `sed` in a file for instance) and still keeping automatic operations: the best of the two worlds.
---
@@ -561,6 +701,7 @@ We currently aim at providing a rootfs with our tools, when we will have enough
[baguette-rc]: https://git.baguette.netlib.re/Baguette/recipes/src/branch/master/rc
[baguette-profile]: https://git.baguette.netlib.re/Baguette/recipes/src/branch/master/rc/profile
+[recipes]: https://git.baguette.netlib.re/Baguette/recipes/
[recipe-hello]: https://git.baguette.netlib.re/Baguette/recipes/src/branch/master/hello/recipe.spec
[recipe-dhcpcd]: https://git.baguette.netlib.re/Baguette/recipes/src/branch/master/dhcpcd/recipe.spec
[recipe-alsautils]: https://git.baguette.netlib.re/Baguette/recipes/src/branch/master/alsa-utils/recipe.spec