[yocto] Embedded Linux Package Management

[Benjamin Esquivel]

Hi Prasant,

On Fri, 2015-03-20 at 11:14 +0000, Paul Eggleton wrote:
> On Friday 20 March 2015 11:10:39 Paul Eggleton wrote:
> > On Friday 20 March 2015 11:26:43 Alex J Lennon wrote:
> > > On 20/03/2015 11:15, Prasant J wrote:
> > > > On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 2:21 PM, Alex J Lennon
> > > > 
> > > > <ajlennon at dynamicdevices.co.uk> wrote:
> > > >> On 20/03/2015 09:34, Prasant J wrote:
> > > >> 
> > > >> Hi,
> > > >> 
> > > >> I'm looking for package management for my embedded linux systems
> > > >> (yocto on armv7 iMX6Q)
> > > >> 
> > > >> 
> > > >> I'm looking for the following features:
> > > >> 
> > > >> (a) Install & remove a package
> > > >> (b) Install packages and its dependencies
> > > >> (c) Install a package with conflicts, such that the conflicting
> > > >> package is force removed
> > > >> (d) A local location with packages should serve as a package source
> > > >> (e) Remote server package (http file server based)
> > > >> (f) List of my packages installed
> > > >> (g) List of my packages not installed but available on the http file
> > > >> server
> > > >> (h) List of my packages that have updates (new version)
> > > >> (i) To be able to manage packages for multiple architectures (eg. rpm
> > > >> can produce packages for multiple architectures using one spec file)
> > > >> 

This list of requirements you put seem very helpful from the package
management standpoint although I believe this can all be done in a
couple of scripting lines at the most, if you're with Yum/RPM anyway.

> > > >> 
> > > >> The above features will be invoked by the application GUI.
> > > >> Any suggestions: which package management solution would answer all
> > > >> the above use cases?
> > > >> 
> > > >> 
> > > >> 
> > > >> (e) I use smart + RPM. I have a remote package server setup via this in
> > > >> local.conf
> > > >> 
> > > >> FEED_DEPLOYDIR_BASE_URI = "http://packages.foo.bar"
> > > >> 
> > > >> Then I'm rsyncing the files up to the server after a bitbake
> > > >> package-index.
> > > >> 
> > > >> Then smart update / search / install
> > > >> 
> > > >> That seems to work well in my testing.
> > > > 
> > > > Hi Alex,
> > > > 
> > > > Thanks for inputs!
> > > > 
> > > > Is smart development stopped?
> > > > 
> > > > When I look at their mailing list it, the last posts were in Nov 2014.
> > > > It looks like no more development for smart package manager. I would
> > > > then tend to say that it will not be a right way for me.
> > > 
> > > I don't know. To me the question would be does it do want I need it to
> > > do as well as I need it to do it,
> > > rather than asking whether there is a lot of activity. One might take
> > > the view that if it is doing its job,
> > > a lack of activity is a sign that it's a mature piece of software that
> > > needs little further development.
> > > 
> > > You'll have to make that decision yourself.
> > > 
> > > My understanding is that smart is the recommended way to do things (at
> > > least it was what was
> > > recommended to me) - https://wiki.yoctoproject.org/wiki/Smart
> > 
> > FYI, here is some of the thinking that led to the decision to use smart:
> > 
> > https://lists.yoctoproject.org/pipermail/yocto/2012-October/010384.html
> > 
> > Of course that was a few years ago now - we probably ought to look at the
> > RPM landscape again (e.g. DNF) and see if any change is warranted.
> 
> I forgot to mention, we do have some basic documentation here on
> setting up a feed if you hadn't already seen it:
> 
> http://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/current/dev-manual/dev-manual.html#using-runtime-package-management
> 
> Cheers,
> Paul
> 
> -- 
> 
> Paul Eggleton
> Intel Open Source Technology Centre