[gentoo-dev] Re: [GSoC status] Web-based image builder

[Eitan Mosenkis]

This week has gone pretty well and I'm hoping to get a testing server
up soon, though it looks like it will be running the backend in a
virtual machine due to the root privileges requirement.  I've added
support for several more output formats: ext2 image, jffs2, and two
different styles of bootable ISO - one that's just a standard weekly
Gentoo minimal CD with a tarball of the system, and one that replaces
the minimal CD's environment with the generated system (the CDs are at
a fairly primitive stage, but I did succeed in booting both of them
with qemu).  I also changed around the frontend so that rather than
configuring each build individually, configuration is done on reusable
configurations, which can then be used any number of times to request
actual builds.  I also added an invitations system to allow a more
closed environment, especially for testing before it's ready for
release.
Both the frontend and backend are now set up to use modules (presently
I'm only worrying about modules for Gentoo/portage) so that in the
future, support can be added for other distributions or package
managers.  I also did some work to provide more high-level functions
for these modules so they will be easy to write and modify.  The
portage backend now caches the generated image after the base system
has been installed, providing a huge reduction in the time it takes to
generate an image for large profiles once the cache exists.
Lastly, the backend can now upload completed images to the frontend
for a case when they are on separate machines and it is not desirable
to have users download their finished images directly from the backend
machines on which they were compiled.

To do:
-Make the frontend more user-friendly (particularly the selection of
packages to install)
-Allow editing of configurations after they are initially completed
-Wrinkle out the rest of the issues with separating frontend and backend
-Make sure no race conditions exist when using more than one backend
to serve one frontend
-Figure out a (safe) system for updating the package repositories,
particularly with backend and frontend split and with multiple
backends
-Perhaps more important of all, provide more options to configure the
image produced (see http://etherpad.com/BJkgXcMkwJ for current list of
options, http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-5830406.html if you have
suggestions)

Thanks to those who have been giving support and offering suggestions so far.

Eudyptula