Building the foxConda Installer

:author: The foxBMS Team (Tim Fühner tim.fuehner@iisb.fraunhofer.de) :version: 0.5

The foxBMS project comes with its own Python distribution, called foxConda. Python is a modern, interpreted programming language whose great popularity is still increasing, also owing to the multitude of libraries that are available for virtually any application. In combination with an easy-to-use distribution, like Anaconda, Python constitutes an ideal development platform. We have therefore decided to also employ it as a software development toolkit (SDK) for foxBMS. For an even improved user experience and maintainability, we are not only providing Python programs and packages to get you started with foxBMS, we have additionally devised a dedicated, comprehensive distribution, which includes all the packages you need. It is based on Anaconda and is hence fully compatible with it.

Creating a foxConda distribution and building the installer

You can find the configuration files required to build a standard foxConda distribution and its installer in the foxconda-makeinstaller subdirectory of the foxconda repository. In addition, the list of packages that are to be included in the "bootstrap" foxConda distribution, is specified in the file bootstrap/packages.yaml in the same repository. You will also need the scripts/bootstrap.py script, and a running Python environment (version 2.6 or higher) and yaml support [#FIXME]. Furthermore, make sure you have a working Internet connection since the bootstrap process will automatically download all required package and source files.

Unless you would like to customize or modify it, no changes are required, and you can simply issue the build commands.

Simplified build

If not done so, clone foxconda and change into the working directory:
```
git clone https://github.com/foxBMS/foxconda
```
Issue:

Linux/OSX:
```
python scripts/bootstrap.py -p bootstrap/packages.yaml <INSTALLDIR>
```
Windows:
```
python scripts\bootstrap.py -p bootstrap\packages_win.yaml <INSTALLDIR>
```
Here, it is assumed that the python command is in your system path. INSTALLDIR is the path to the bootstrap foxConda installation directory. It will be used to collect the third-party packages and build the foxBMS modules. After the foxConda installer has been built, it can be safely removed.

The file containing the list of packages is specified using the -p option. As shown above, you can simply use the provided list, located in the bootstrap directory.

Further options of the bootstrap.py script are shown when issuing:
```
python scripts/bootstrap.py --help
```
Afterward, your foxConda bootstrap directory is ready. For the next step, use Python from this bootstrap distribution by activating it:

Linux/OSX:
```
. <INSTALLDIR>/bin/activate root
```
Windows:
```
. <INSTALLDIR>\Scripts\activate root
```
Change into the foxconda-makeinstaller directory and execute:
```
python makeinstaller.py all
```

The foxConda installer will be situated in the dist subdirectory.

Step-by-step build

Bootstrap the initial foxConda installation, as shown in the previous simplified build steps instructions (1.-3.).
Change into the foxconda-makeinstaller directory.
Fetch the repository file, which represents the package list of the bootstrap installation:
```
fcgetrepository file:///<INSTALLDIR>
```
The package list will be stored in a file called repodata.json.
Generate the payload of the installer, i.e., an archive containing all packages the foxConda distribution is to contain:
```
fcmakepayload repodata.json
```
The payload will be stored in a file called payload.tar.
Generates the installer, issuing:
```
fcmakeinstaller installer.yaml
```
The file installer.yaml contains the configuration for the installer. The generated installer will be located in the dist subdirectory.

Customizing foxConda

To create a custom foxConda distribution and the according installer from scratch, you have to provide a number of customization and configuration files.

bootstrap/packages.yaml This file contains the list of packages that are to be installed in the bootstrap environment. It contains two sections: (1) installpackages: These packages will be fetched from Anaconda or other publicly available channels; and (2) buildpackages: These packages will be built, and their recepies are expected to be located in the recepies subdirectory (or another location to which the --recipesdir option of scripts/bootstrap.py points).

In addition, in the section channels, you can specify custom channels for specific packages.
recipes This directory contains all the recipes for the foxBMS or their support packages.
foxconda/makeinstaller This directory contains the configuration files required for the installer generation:
installer.yaml This is the configuration file, which specifieѕ the behavior and appearance of the installer. It allows you to set logos, welcome screens, messages, version numbers and programs to be launched after the installation has finished. See the provided example configuration file for further details.

Note: The names of the following files are specified in the installer.yaml file and may differ if you have chosen to give them different names.
app.ico, app.icns, app.svg These are the installer icons for Windows, MacOS and Linux, respectively.
installer.png This is the welcome image of the installer.
anaconda.LICENSE, LICENSE These are the license files for the Anaconda Python distribution, which we supply since foxConda is derived work, and the foxConda license. You mileage may vary, but we strongly encourage you to leave the licenses as are and simply add your specific license file if required.
install.py This script is required by the conda installation process. Unless you are certain about what you are doing, it is best to leave it as it is.
postinstall.py This script will be executed after foxConda was successfully installed. It can be used to execute post-installation triggers.
windowsexedetails.txt This file is used to supply the Windows executable of the installer with version and credit information.

Overview

foxconda build overview