Richard Freeman on 23 Mar 2010 17:02:53 -0700


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Re: [PLUG] sharing and distributing software


On 03/23/2010 07:17 PM, Mag Gam wrote:
> So, currently we have /net/shared/software and when we compile
> something we use, ./configure --prefix=/net/shared/software
> This is kind of like having LFS (Linux from scratch with versions)
> onto a NFS share
>
> I was wondering if anyone has a better way of doing this or share tips
> or tricks.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record - you might take a quick 
look at Gentoo Prefix, which is a somewhat innovative sub-distribution:
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/gentoo-alt/prefix/

The concept is that it is a distro that is designed to run from 
somewhere other than the root (you get to choose the path).  If you're 
willing to do LFS you shouldn't find Gentoo too burdensome, and 
obviously you benefit from package management this way.

You can run Prefix on any POSIX OS and it won't interfere with any other 
distro it is running underneath.  It is up to you to prioritize either 
your primary distro or Gentoo in your PATH.  I think it even works under 
Cygwin.

 > I would also be interested in a a regression method, so for
> example if you install a new version of gcc is installed; how would
> you test to see if it keeps your company's standard and code would
> compile properly?

If you set FEATURES="test" Gentoo will run testsuites where they are 
supported.  I'd say that most major packages that have an 
upstream-provided test suite support this.  Some packages have REALLY 
long-running test suites and you need to use a different syntax to 
enable these (most people who want extra tests don't usually want 40 
hours of extra tests).

Of course, running with a distro you also benefit from the regression 
testing provided by the distro.

Check it out.  Since my Gentoo talk went reasonably well I might do a 
Gentoo prefix talk sometime (a good excuse to try it out myself).  For 
kicks I might try to get it to work on my android phone (although I'm 
not sure if Android will work - I know that stuff like /bin/sh are very 
stripped down and most mods use busybox).

Rich
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