Normies

This is the factory of packages provided to Conformism users. Some of them are meta-packages, some others are useful 3rd-party softwares not available at distributions repositories.

Running Normies will build .deb packages (and/or rpm or whatever CPack can package that preferentially manages dependencies) and deploy an APT repository.

Usage

Build within a container

Some packages have several build-time dependencies so not to pollute your system, you must use a container.

normies $

	docker build . -t normies:t1
	docker run -v $PWD/out:/opt/normies/build/out -t normies:t1
	ls out

Of course, you can use another directory than $PWD/out to deploy your packages repository.

Classic build on Ubuntu 19.10 (deprecated)

If you don't care, you can go the classic way. Normies relies on CMake so packages construction is straight forward.

normies $

	sudo apt-get install build-essential git file libelf-dev \
		cmake extra-cmake-modules software-properties-common lintian

	mkdir build && cd build
	cmake -DINSTALL_BUILD_TIME_DEP=TRUE ..
	make deploy

Development

The list of packages for your normies is specific to each use case. So you may want to fork the project and add/remove some packages.

Overview

By its structure, Normies will look familiar for someone who already used Yocto. Each package process is wrapped in a recipe (CMakeLists.txt) with some predefined sections. For example, take a look at existant recipes.

Header paragraph

First of all, declare which CMake version is required cmake_minimum_required( VERSION 3.11 ). Then declare a new project named as your package do, with its version and its description. Check CMake documentation :

• https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/command/project.html

Pack paragraph

It is the last section. It is mandatory since each recipe means to produce a package.

• CPackConfig.cmake holds your default config for packages plus the CPackRegister macro. Include it : include( CPackConfig )

• Set all the CPACK_* variables you need. Check CMake documentation :

  • https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/module/CPack.html
  • https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/manual/cpack-generators.7.html

• include( CPack ) as usual.

• Register this package process as dependency of the target pack. You can also register other targets as dependencies of this package process. For example, if the package process need the build process to be done before executing, just write CPackRegister( ${PROJECT_NAME} ), assuming the build target is named as the current project.

Build paragraph

Local project

If it is your own package that has no place elsewhere, the recipe folder is its sources root folder and the recipe is the top CMakeLists.txt. Just write it's build system as usual, split it in subfolders if it is a large project.

External project

• If the package is hosted somewhere on the Internet, use the ExternalProject_Add command that wrap the build process of a project based on CMake, Autotools or simply GNU Make. The process is splitted in some steps you can redefine. Check CMake documentation :

  • https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/module/ExternalProject.html

• As manually installed, the package would probably like to install itself to /usr/local instead of /usr, in this case you will have to override this behavior CONFIGURE_COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX= <SOURCE_DIR>.

• You will also need to make the project install itself to <INSTALL_DIR> instead wherever on the rootfs (like /usr, /usr/local or /opt) : INSTALL_COMMAND make install DESTDIR=<INSTALL_DIR>

• Do not forget to strip binary files if they are not. Just add a strip step after the install one.

• Then install project from the ExternalProject <INSTALL_DIR> to the real installation directory, /usr. If the project has a standard installation process, you will only have to install that directory to . that means the root after ${DESTDIR}/${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}. Do not mess with permissions. Check CMake documentation :

  • https://cmake.org/cmake/help/latest/command/install.html

install(
	DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/${EP_BASE_DIR}/Install/${PROJECT_NAME}/."
	DESTINATION "."
	USE_SOURCE_PERMISSIONS
	DIRECTORY_PERMISSIONS ${CMAKE_INSTALL_DEFAULT_DIRECTORY_PERMISSIONS}
	)

Dependencies paragraph

If the package build process needs softwares or libraries to be installed, you can add build-time dependencies :

• Write the list of needed packages <recipe_dir>/dependencies.debian. Then use InstallDebianDependencies( "AddDebianRepositories-${PROJECT_NAME}" ) if you have to add APT repositories before, else simply InstallDebianDependencies(). Do not forget to make your build process depends on this process by adding DEPENDS "Dependencies-${PROJECT_NAME}" to ExternalProject_Add or add_custom_target, or with add_dependencies for other targets.

• Write the list of needed repositories <recipe_dir>/repositories.debian. Then use AddDebianRepositories. This process probably depends on nothing else but it is possible to set a dependency the same way than for AddDebianRepositories.