Use a sandbox to build applications that play nicely within your network. Many NetBSD users are responsible for multiple systems running on different architectures. Instead of rebuilding the same package on machine after machine, it's often desirable to build packages for all of these machines from the most powerful one, delivering the appropriate binary packages across the network. However, problems can arise when not all machines run the same version of NetBSD or when you want different optimizations or build settings on each box. The solution to this dilemma is simple: create a sandbox with the version of NetBSD used in the target machine and build the necessary binary packages inside it. This sounds easy, but it can be a very tedious and error-prone task. It is even more complex if you want to automate periodic package rebuilding. Fortunately, that's our final goal in this hack. To simplify things, I assume that you have a relatively fast desktop machine running NetBSD-current, where you will build binary packages, and a server machine running the stable version of NetBSD (1.6.2 at the time of this writing). 8.12.1 Installing pkg_comppkg_comp (also known as Package Compiler) can simplify the creation of these sandboxes: it handles any version of NetBSD inside a chroot jail and automates the build process of binary packages inside it. Its only restriction is that both the builder and the destination machine share the same architecture. Let's begin by installing pkg_comp on the builder machine (make sure you have Version 1.15 or greater): # cd /usr/pkgsrc/pkgtools/pkg_comp # make install && make clean After installation, spend some time reading man 8 pkg_comp and getting familiar with its structure because you will be using it as a reference guide during the configuration. Also ensure that your kernel configuration file contains file-system NULLFS. (See man 4 options for more information.) 8.12.2 Configuration VariablesNow you are ready to set up pkg_comp. The configuration file tells pkg_comp how to create the sandbox. Type the following commands to create and edit a sample configuration file: # pkg_comp maketemplate # vi /root/pkg_comp/default.conf You will notice lots of variable definitions. All you need to do is set some values; pkg_comp handles everything else. For our purposes, you need to know only some of these variables (see Table 8-2) and change them to suit your system.
Now is the time to enable compile-time optimizations for the packages you are going to build. As you modify the CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS variables, keep in mind that the configuration file is a shell script. Remember to quote your values properly. 8.12.3 Initializing and Using the SandboxAfter setting your values and creating all of the referenced directories, it's time to initialize the sandbox. It is as easy as typing: # pkg_comp makeroot When this command finishes, the sandbox is ready to build packages for your server. In this example, the packages will linked against 1.6.2 libraries using any specified optimizations. Suppose you want binary packages for Apache and screen. Compile them with the following call to pkg_comp: # pkg_comp build www/apache misc/screen This will place apache-1.3.29.tgz and screen-4.0.2.tgz as well as their dependencies under /home/NetBSD/packages/1.6.2/All. They're now suitable for transferring to the destination machine. Install them with pkg_add. If you do not need to build more packages using pkg_comp, you can safely free the space used by the sandbox with the command shown next. Note that this removes only the sandbox, not binary packages: # pkg_comp removeroot 8.12.4 Automating the ProcessWe can go one step further and configure pkg_comp to create the sandbox, build a predefined set of packages for your server, and remove the sandbox when finished, all automatically. This takes only a single command with pkg_comp's automatic mode. To enable automatic mode, re-edit the configuration file, /root/pkg_comp/default.conf, and define the AUTO_PACKAGES variable. This variable takes the list of packages you want to build for your server. In this example: AUTO_PACKAGES="misc/screen www/apache" That's it for the configuration side. To check if this works, make sure the sandbox does not exist, and execute pkg_comp's automatic mode: # pkg_comp removeroot # pkg_comp auto After a while, you will find binary packages for screen and Apache in your package repository, just as in the earlier example. If the list of packages is extensive, the build will take a long while, which may not be desirable in some environments (for example, in cases when you need to shut down the builder during the night). This is not a problem: if you stop the automatic process with Ctrl-c at any point, you can resume it later by issuing: # pkg_comp auto resume To finish the automation, configure a cron job to rebuild your package set automatically once a week. Edit root's crontab to add the line: # crontab -e 0 3 * * * /usr/pkg/sbin/pkg_comp auto 8.12.5 Hacking the HackI've shown the most basic usage of pkg_comp in this hack. If you found it useful, there are many more things to learn, and the manpage is a good starting point. Here are some other ideas to try:
8.12.6 See Also
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