source: README.BLFS@ 90b5931

2.3 2.3.x 2.4 ablfs ablfs-more legacy new_features trunk
Last change on this file since 90b5931 was 615ba88, checked in by George Boudreau <georgeb@…>, 17 years ago

Add note to user. Make sure all privileged cmds are visible in PATH

  • Property mode set to 100644
File size: 10.5 KB
Line 
1$Id$
2
31. INTRODUCTION::
4
5 To automate package builds from the BLFS book instructions is a huge
6 task. Some of the issues are: the BLFS book isn't linear; some package
7 pages use a custom layout; there are circular dependencies; several
8 packages can be installed on a non-default prefix; build commands can
9 change based on what dependencies will be used, etc.
10
11 That being said, the goal of the blfs-tool is to help you solve package
12 dependencies, create build scripts and a Makefile. Few of the auto-generated
13 build scripts and Makefile will work "as is", thus, as a general rule,
14 you will need to review and edit the scripts while reading the book.
15
16
172. PREREQUISITES::
18
19 To use this tool you MUST:
20
21 - have experience building BLFS packages
22 - know how to edit and write shell scripts
23 - know how a Makefile works
24 - be able to trace build failures and to find what is causing it
25 (user error, package bug, BLFS command bug, or jhalfs code bug)
26
27 If you do not have the above skills, please don't use this tool.
28
29
303. USAGE::
31
32 Due the complexity of the BLFS book, the scripts and Makefile generation
33 is done in several steps:
34
35 3.1 INSTALLED PACKAGES TRACKING SYSTEM
36
37 This tool includes a very simple tracking system to log which packages
38 have been installed using the tool. It is used to skip installed packages
39 from target selection menu and to test if an installed package has been
40 updated in the BLFS book. Do not rely on this feature as a package
41 management tool.
42
43 The directory where tracking files will be stored needs to be created
44 before installing blfs-tool. You can place this directory anywhere, taking
45 care that the user must have read and write privileges on that directory
46 and on all files it contains.
47
48 To use the default path set in the installation menu, run as root:
49
50 install -d -m1777 /var/lib/jhalfs/BLFS
51
52 3.2 BLFS_TOOL INSTALLATION::
53
54 Run "make" to launch the jhalfs menuconfig interface. Select the BLFS
55 book and version. Then set the installation directory (default
56 $HOME/blfs_root), the BLFS sources directory (default blfs-xml), and
57 the installed packages tracking directory (default /var/lib/jhalfs/BLFS).
58
59 All required files will be placed in the installation directory and
60 BLFS XML sources will be installed in the named sub-directory.
61
62 Installed files:
63
64 blfs-xml/* SVN tree of the selected BLFS book version
65 lib/* functions libraries, xsl stylesheets, and auto-generated
66 meta-packages dependencies tree files
67 menu/* lxdialog and menuconfig source code
68 README.BLFS this file
69 TODO developers notes
70 update_book.sh update the XML book sources and regenerates packages
71 database and meta-packages dependencies tree
72 gen_config.sh regenerates Config.in
73 gen_pkg_book.sh resolves dependencies and generates linear BLFS books
74 and build scripts
75 gen-makefile.sh generates the target Makefile
76 progress_bar.sh the target Makefile progress bar
77 Makefile run gen_config.sh to update Config.in,
78 then launch the menuconfig interface, and lastly run
79 gen_pkg_book.sh based on configuration settings
80 Config.in menuconfig interface input file
81 packages auto-generated packages database
82 envars.conf envars needed when running the target build scripts
83
84 From now on, all the work must be done from inside the installation
85 root directory.
86
87 When finished the installation, the configuration and target selection
88 menu is launch.
89
90 3.3 UPDATING BOOK SOURCES::
91
92 If you are using the development book version and you want to update
93 installed packages to the latest version found in that book, you need to
94 update the XML sources and packages database.
95
96 To do that run "./update_book.sh"
97
98 On the next configuration run, packages already installed but listed
99 with a new version in the book will be available for target selection
100 and used to solve dependencies.
101
102 3.4 CONFIGURING AND PARSING THE BOOK::
103
104 The next step is to create a book and build scripts in dependency
105 build order for a target package. A target can be a package or a
106 meta-package.
107
108 WARNING:
109 Only one target (meta-package or individual package) must be
110 selected on each configuration run.
111 There is no way to solve dependencies properly when more
112 than one target are selected.
113
114 Run <make> to launch the configuration interface. The main menu contains
115 three blocks: meta-package selection, individual package selection, and
116 build options.
117
118 When a meta-package is selected, it is possible to unselect unwanted
119 components. The unselected components will be skipped if no other components
120 depends on them.
121
122 In the build options section, the dependencies level and default packages
123 used to solve alternatives are set. You can also select whether the build will
124 be made as a normal user or as root. That settings are saved to be reused in
125 future configuration runs.
126
127 If, for example, your target selection is Xsoft-->Graphweb-->galeon, a
128 directory named "galeon" will be created. Inside that directory you will
129 find a directory named "HTML" that contains a galeon-based HTML book with
130 its dependencies in build order, and a "scripts" directory with build
131 scripts for that packages.
132
133 There are also two other directories ("dependencies" and "xincludes")
134 that contain files generated while resolving dependencies trees.
135
136 3.5 EDITING BUILD SCRIPTS
137
138 Now it is time to review the generated book and scripts, making any changes
139 to the scripts necessary to fix generation bugs or to suit your needs.
140
141 Scripts for additional packages (i.e., for non-BLFS packages) can be
142 easily inserted. For example, if you want to install the external dependency
143 "bar" before "foo" package and the "foo" script is named "064-z-foo", you
144 need to create a "064-y-bar" build script.
145
146 Remember, the package tracking system isn't a package management tool
147 and knows nothing about packages not in the BLFS book.
148
149 Also, review and edit envars.conf. This file is used to set global envars
150 needed by the build scripts.
151
152 3.6 CREATING THE MAKEFILE
153
154 When the build scripts are ready to be run, the Makefile can be
155 created. Be sure that you cd into the "package" directory and run
156 ../gen-makefile.sh
157
158 Review the Makefile, and, if all looks sane, start the build.
159
1604. GENERATED BUILD SCRIPTS ISSUES::
161
162 In this section, known issues with the generated build scripts are
163 discussed. They are due to build procedures and/or BLFS layout particularities
164 that we can't handle. In several cases, editing the build scripts is mandatory.
165 You may also need to insert some build scripts created by you to resolve
166 unhandled dependencies and/or to remove some script installing the affected
167 package by hand.
168
169 4.1 BLFS BOOTSCRIPTS
170
171 For now, bootscripts installation will fail. You will need to edit
172 the scripts for packages that install bootscripts and fix their
173 installation command. That could be fixed in the future.
174
175 4.2 PACKAGE CONFIGURATION
176
177 For those packages that have a "Configuration" section, you should
178 edit the build script to fit the needs of your system.
179
180 4.4 PDL and Perl modules.
181
182 The generated scripts for these packages are broken and can not
183 be fixed. You must replace them with your own scripts or install the
184 packages by hand.
185
186 4.4 GCC, JDK, Sane, and KDE-multimedia
187
188 On the pages for these packages, the BLFS book actually has instructions
189 to install two packages. You must edit the scripts to fix this.
190
191 We will try to fix some of them, but this may not be possible.
192
193 4.5 XORG7
194
195 The generated scripts for Xorg7 pseudo-packages don't have support for
196 $SRC_ARCHIVE nor MD5 checking.
197
198 If you have previously downloaded the packages, you must edit the
199 scripts to use your local packages.
200
201 Also, you will need to edit the scripts to fix the commands that must
202 be applied only to a concrete individual sub-package. For example, the
203 "for" loop to install xorg7-util packages may read like:
204
205for package in $(cat $WGET_LST) ; do
206 packagedir=$(echo $package | sed 's/.tar.bz2//')
207 tar -xf $package
208 cd $packagedir
209 sed -i "s@/usr/X11R6@$XORG_PREFIX@" X11.tmpl &&
210 ./configure $XORG_CONFIG --with-config-dir=$XORG_PREFIX/lib/X11/config
211 sudo sh -c "make install"
212 ./configure $XORG_CONFIG --with-config-dir=$XORG_PREFIX/lib/X11/config &&
213 make
214 sudo sh -c "make install"
215 ./configure $XORG_CONFIG &&
216 make
217 sudo sh -c "make install"
218 cd ..
219 rm -rf $packagedir
220done
221
222 After reading the HTML page to find what command is for what package,
223 the loop can be changed to read something like:
224
225for package in $(cat $WGET_LST) ; do
226 packagedir=$(echo $package | sed 's/.tar.bz2//')
227 tar -xf $package
228 cd $packagedir
229 if [ ${packagedir} = "xorg-cf-files" ] ; then
230 sed -i "s@/usr/X11R6@$XORG_PREFIX@" X11.tmpl &&
231 ./configure $XORG_CONFIG --with-config-dir=$XORG_PREFIX/lib/X11/config
232 sudo sh -c "make install"
233 elif [ ${packagedir} = "Imake" ] ; then
234 ./configure $XORG_CONFIG --with-config-dir=$XORG_PREFIX/lib/X11/config &&
235 make
236 sudo sh -c "make install"
237 else
238 ./configure $XORG_CONFIG &&
239 make
240 sudo sh -c "make install"
241 fi
242 cd ..
243 rm -rf $packagedir
244done
245
246 4.6 PATCHES
247
248 By default, all required patches will be downloaded from the NET.
249
250 If you have previously downloaded the patches, you must edit the
251 scripts to use your local patches.
252
253 Also, be sure that all scripts have the commands to download/apply the
254 required patches. Due to book layout issues, some patches may be missing.
255
256 4.7 ROOT COMMANDS
257
258 If building as a normal user (the default setting), be sure that all
259 commands that require root privileges are run using sudo. Also make sure
260 necessary root privilege commands are visible in your PATH. ie. ldconfig
261 may not be in your user path and you will have to adjust all instances to
262 include the full path.
263
264 Due to book layout issues, some sudo commands may be missing.
265
266 4.8 OTHERS
267
268 There may be other issues that we are not aware of. If you find
269 any, please report it to <alfs-discuss@linuxfromscratch.org>.
270
271
Note: See TracBrowser for help on using the repository browser.