[gentoo-soc] Re: R_Overlay: Automated overlay maintenance - final report

[EBo]

André,

congratulations on the successful completion!

You mention that it is now in layman.  I looked and cannot find any 
mention of roverlay.  Could you add instructions on how to access via 
layman?

   EBo --

On Sep 26 2013 8:03 PM, André Erdmann wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> == Overview ==
>
> This project is about creating an overlay of R packages, without
> requiring much interaction. Overlay creation itself was already
> implemented in last year's GSoC project "Automatically generated
> overlay
> of R packages", with "roverlay" [0] as result. This year's work
> focused
> on extending roverlay and facilitating overlay maintenance.
>
> I'm going to give an insight on what's been done this summer, without
> going too much into details.
>
>
> == Overlay creation features ==
>
> * RSUGGESTS USE_EXPAND variable
>
> Instead of a single "r_suggests" USE flag, overlay creation now
> produces
> per-package USE_EXPAND flags (r_suggests_<sth>). These flags can also
> be
> renamed and grouped.
>
> * extended package rules system
>
> package rules match a set of packages by name, origin,... using
> boolean
> expressions and apply actions to them, which manipulates their
> metadata
> or causes packages to be ignored. The general concept and
> syntax/parser
> was implemented prior to this year's GSoC, but lacked actions. Now,
> packages can be "relocated" (category, name, $SRC_URI), dependency
> resolution can be influenced (add/ignore dependencies) and ebuild
> variables (LICENSE,...) can be set. Additionally, support for
> "else"-blocks has been added, which makes writing of rule files
> easier.
>
> * support for SLOTs in resolved dependencies (including sub-slots)
>
> * patch generated ebuilds, import ebuilds into the overlay
>
>
> == Improved overlay quality ==
>
> * selfdep validation
>
> This feature ensures that all dependencies on packages provided by
> the
> generated overlay are satisfiable ("candidates" exist), which
> improves
> the overlay's consistency.
>
> * dependency resolution: look up package dependencies in own repo
> first
>
> More accurate dependencies if a package is available from more than
> one
> repo.
>
> * handle file collisions (package available from >1 repo)
>
> Very important, because it keeps the package mirror directory
> collision-free.
>
> * revbump if upstream modifies a tarball without renaming it
>
>
> == Misc ==
>
> * (dependency resolution) console reimplementation with support for
> tab
> completion, command history
>
> * API for using roverlay's functionality externally (dependency
> resolution and remote-sync)
>
> * "Event Hooks", execution of scripts on certain events, e.g.
> automatic
> metadata cache creation (suggested by heroxbd) and git commit/push
> after
> overlay creation
>
> * up-to-date documentation [1]
>
>
> == Helper scripts ==
>
> * roverlay-setup
>
> This script takes care of generating a config file, creating
> directories
> with proper permissions and managing event hook scripts.
> It's mostly intended for setting up a roverlay server, which can be
> done
> with "roverlay-setup" or "roverlay-setup-interactive"/"emerge
> --config
> roverlay".
>
> * roverlay-sh, a /bin/sh wrapper which sets up a environment similar
> to
> what's used for "Event Hooks" (access to variables like $OVERLAY)
>
> * roverlay-status
>
> Creates status reports based on mako templates and roverlay's stats.
> Can
> also be used as CGI script.
>
>
> == Conclusion and Future directions ==
>
> After 2 summers and some work in between, roverlay is now (more or
> less)
> complete. What's left to do is some more testing, updating the
> roverlay
> server and then making the R overlay available via layman.
>
> Finally, I'd like to thank Denis (Calchan), my mentor, for
> suggestions,
> testing and guidance throughout the past months, and for encouraging
> me
> to participate this year again ;)
>
> Credits also go to Benda (heroxbd) for a patch to the R-packages
> eclass
> and suggesting metadata cache creation (which then led to the "Event
> Hooks" feature), and Ebo for making me aware of a dependency
> resolution
> issue.
>
>
> [0]
> http://git.overlays.gentoo.org/gitweb/?p=proj/R_overlay.git;a=summary
> [1]
>
> http://git.overlays.gentoo.org/gitweb/?p=proj/R_overlay.git;a=blob_plain;f=doc/html/usage.html;hb=HEAD
>
> Regards,
> André E.