tetra is a set of tools to help you build RPM packages for Java projects.
Packaging of Java projects is sometimes hard because build tools like Maven partially overlap with distro tools like RPM in functionality.
This tool's goal is to drastically simplifies packaging.
You need:
Install tetra via RubyGems:
gem install tetra
Building a package with tetra is quite unusual — this is a deliberate choice, so don't worry. Basic steps are:
tetra inita new project;- add sources to
src/<package name>and anything else needed for the build inkit/in binary form (typically a copy of Maven and maybe some other dependency jars); - execute
tetra dry-run, then any command needed to compile your software, thentetra finish; - execute
tetra generate-all: tetra will look at changed files and Bash history to scaffold spec files and tarballs.
Done!
With tetra you are not building all dependencies from source, just your package. Everything else is shipped already compiled with attached source files, which is much easier to implement and automate. Yet, it is sufficient to fulfill open source licenses and to have a repeatable, networkless build. See MOTIVATION.md for further information.
First, ceate a new tetra project, in this example named "myproject":
mkdir myproject
cd myproject
tetra init
Second, place commons-collections source files in the src/ folder. Specifically, every src/ subfolder will become a separate package named after the folder itself, so you can use the following:
cd src
mkdir commons-collections
cd commons-collections
wget http://archive.apache.org/dist/commons/collections/source/commons-collections-3.2.1-src.zip
unzip commons-collections-3.2.1-src.zip
rm commons-collections-3.2.1-src.zip
Third, put all non-source files needed for the build in kit/. This means all build dependencies and tools excluding the JDK: in this case it is just Maven:
cd ../../kit
wget http://www.eu.apache.org/dist/maven/binaries/apache-maven-3.1.1-bin.zip
unzip apache-maven-3.1.1-bin.zip
rm apache-maven-3.1.1-bin.zip
Fourth, you need to show tetra how to build your package by running appropriate commands between tetra dry-run and tetra finish. Bash history will be recorded to generate a "starting-point" build script (that will be sufficient in simple cases like this):
cd ../src/commons-collections/commons-collections-3.2.1-src/
tetra dry-run
tetra mvn package
tetra finish
Note that we used tetra mvn package instead of mvn package: this will use of the Maven copy we put in kit/ and the repository in kit/m2.
Also note that this being a dry-run build, sources will be brought back to their original state after tetra finish, as this ensures build repeatability.
Finally, generate build scripts, spec files and tarballs in the output/ directory:
tetra generate-all
Note that tetra will generate files for the commons-collections package and for the binary-only myproject-kit package, which is a special container of all build-time dependencies (basically, the kit/ folder). This will be shared among all packages you might add to your tetra project.
In more complex cases building a package will require some special tweaks. We are trying to cover the most common in the SPECIAL_CASES.md file.
An in-depth discussion of this project's motivation is available in the MOTIVATION.md file.
tetra is a research project currently in beta state. If you are a packager you can try to use it, any feedback would be very welcome!
At the moment tetra is tested on openSUSE.
tetra's Git repo is available on GitHub, which can be browsed at:
https://github.com/SilvioMoioli/tetra
and cloned with:
git clone git@github.com:SilvioMoioli/tetra.git
Are you using tetra or even just reading this? Let's get in touch!
smoioli at suse dot de
MIT license.