From Fedora Project Wiki

Adding and building a module for Fedora

This document describes the process of adding a new module to the Fedora Modularity project, how to build it locally and how to build it in Fedora infrastructure

Process and policy for how to add a module to Fedora

Adding a module repository is a manual process atm. Find someone from the release-engineering group to add the new repository and give you write access. Later on this will be automated by MBS, the module build server, but this is still being worked on.

Writing a new modulemd file

A modulemd file is a yaml file that contains the module metadata like description, license and dependencies. The sample file in the upstream git repository of modulemd contains a complete documentation of the required and optional yaml tags.

The Modularity team uses a shorter modulemd file to test builds, but it can also be used as a base for new modules. Another good example is base-runtime.yml

Lets use the vim modulemd as an example for this document. It is in the /home/karsten/Modularity/modules/vim/ directory on my system.

document: modulemd
version: 1
data:
    summary: The best text editor and IDE
    description: The classic, extensible text editor, the legend.
    license:
        module: [ MIT ]
    dependencies:
        buildrequires:
            base_runtime: master
        requires:
            base_runtime: master
    references:                                                                 
        community: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Modularity                    
        documentation: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_Packaging_Guidelines_for_Modules                                                                   
        tracker: https://taiga.fedorainfracloud.org/project/modularity          
    profiles:
        default:
            rpms:
                - vim-enhanced
                - vim-common
                - vim-filesystem
        minimal:
            rpms:
                - vim-minimal
    api:
        rpms:
            - vim-common
    components:
        rpms:
            vim:
                rationale: Provides API for this module
                ref: f25                                                        
                buildorder: 10                                                  
            generic-release:
                rationale: build dependency
                ref: f25
            perl-Carp:
                rationale: build dependency
                ref: f25
            gpm:
                rationale: build dependency
                ref: f25
            perl-Exporter:
                rationale: build dependency
                ref: f25
           

All dependencies of vim need to be listed under components/rpms, except those that are already included in Base Runtime. Here's how you can get the list of vim dependencies that are not in Base Runtime:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asamalik/fake-base-runtime-module-image/master/packages/gen-core-binary-pkgs.txt
for i in `repoquery --requires --recursive --resolve --qf "%{SOURCERPM}\n" \
  vim-enhanced vim-minimal vim-common vim-filesystem \
  | sed -e "s/-[^-]*-[^-]*$//" | sort -n | uniq` ; do
  grep -wq $i gen-core-binary-pkgs.txt || echo $i
done

verifying the syntax of the new modulemd file and bug fixing

Once the modulemd file is finished, it is a good idea to check if there any errors in the yaml syntax. The check_modulemd program checks modulemd files for errors. You need to install some packages to use this:

  • python2-aexpect - dependency for python-avocado
  • python2-avocado - avocado testing framework
  • python2-modulemd - Module metadata manipulation library
  • python-enchant - spell checker library (needed only for check_modulemd.py)
  • hunspell-en-US - English dictionary (needed only for check_modulemd.py)


Then run

./run-checkmmd.sh /home/karsten/Modularity/modules/vim/vim.yaml

and check the output for errors:

Running: avocado run ./check_modulemd.py --mux-inject 'run:modulemd:/home/karsten/Modularity/modules/vim/vim.yaml'
JOB ID     : 51581372fec0086a50d9be947ea06873b33dd0e5
JOB LOG    : /home/karsten/avocado/job-results/job-2017-01-19T11.28-5158137/job.log                                                                                                                                                          
TESTS      : 11                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
 (01/11) ./check_modulemd.py:ModulemdTest.test_debugdump: PASS (0.16 s)                                                                                                                                                                      
 (02/11) ./check_modulemd.py:ModulemdTest.test_api: PASS (0.15 s)                                                                                                                                                                            
 (03/11) ./check_modulemd.py:ModulemdTest.test_components: PASS (0.16 s)                                                                                                                                                                     
 (04/11) ./check_modulemd.py:ModulemdTest.test_dependencies: WARN (0.02 s)                                                                                                                                                                   
 (05/11) ./check_modulemd.py:ModulemdTest.test_description: PASS (0.16 s)                                                                                                                                                                    
 (06/11) ./check_modulemd.py:ModulemdTest.test_description_spelling: PASS (0.16 s)                                                                                                                                                           
 (07/11) ./check_modulemd.py:ModulemdTest.test_summary: PASS (0.16 s)                                                                                                                                                                        
 (08/11) ./check_modulemd.py:ModulemdTest.test_summary_spelling: WARN (0.02 s)                                                                                                                                                               
 (09/11) ./check_modulemd.py:ModulemdTest.test_rationales: ERROR (0.04 s)                                                                                                                                                                    
 (10/11) ./check_modulemd.py:ModulemdTest.test_rationales_spelling: PASS (0.16 s)                                                                                                                                                            
 (11/11) ./check_modulemd.py:ModulemdTest.test_component_availability: WARN (0.02 s)                                                                                                                                                         
RESULTS    : PASS 7 | ERROR 1 | FAIL 0 | SKIP 0 | WARN 3 | INTERRUPT 0                                                                                                                                                                       
TESTS TIME : 1.20 s

So this isn't quite right yet, lets have a look at the logfile mentioned in the output.

grep -i error /home/karsten/avocado/job-results/job-2017-01-19T11.28-5158137
....
TestError: Rationale for component RPM generic-release should end with a period: build dependency

It seems that rationales need to end with a period. Change all those lines so that they look like this:

            vim:
                rationale: Provides API for this module.
                ref: f25
                buildorder: 10
            generic-release:
                rationale: build dependency.
                ref: f25
            gpm:
                rationale: build dependency.
                ref: f25
            perl:
                rationale: build dependency.
                ref: f25
            perl-Carp:
                rationale: build dependency.
                ref: f25
            perl-Exporter:
                rationale: build dependency.
                ref: f25

Another run of check_modulemd.py completes without errors.

Building the module locally

The build_module script from the build-module repository on github makes local module builds really easy. It sets up the environment and then builds a module and its components locally with mock. One requirement is to have docker installed and running on your system. It is also required that the name of the new modulemd file, the repository name of that module and the name of the module itself match in order to use the build_module script. As build_module builds the latest commit in the master branch of the module git repository, changes need to be checked into git, a push to upstream (dist-git) is not required at this stage.

The basic usage of build_module is

./build_module /home/karsten/Modularity/modules/vim/ /tmp/results


This will download a container with the Module build service and rebuild the dependencies that are listed in the modulemd file. This step can take quite some time, depending on the module and how many components need to be built.

When build_module is done there will be a couple of rebuilt rpms in /tmp/results/module-vim-master-*:

find /tmp/results/module-vim-master-* -name "*.rpm"
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/vim-8.0.206-1.fc25.src.rpm                                                                                                                                                             
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/vim-debuginfo-8.0.206-1.fc25.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                                                                
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/vim-X11-8.0.206-1.fc25.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                                                                      
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/vim-filesystem-8.0.206-1.fc25.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                                                               
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/vim-enhanced-8.0.206-1.fc25.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                                                                 
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/vim-minimal-8.0.206-1.fc25.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                                                                  
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/vim-common-8.0.206-1.fc25.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                                                                   
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/perl-Carp-1.40-365.fc25.src.rpm                                                                                                                                                        
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/perl-Carp-1.40-365.fc25.noarch.rpm                                                                                                                                                     
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/perl-Exporter-5.72-366.fc25.src.rpm                                                                                                                                                    
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/perl-Exporter-5.72-366.fc25.noarch.rpm                                                                                                                                                 
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/gpm-1.20.7-9.fc25.src.rpm                                                                                                                                                              
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/gpm-debuginfo-1.20.7-9.fc25.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                                                                 
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/gpm-static-1.20.7-9.fc25.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                                                                    
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/gpm-devel-1.20.7-9.fc25.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                                                                     
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/gpm-libs-1.20.7-9.fc25.x86_64.rpm                                                                                                                                                      
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/gpm-1.20.7-9.fc25.x86_64.rpm
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/generic-release-25-1.src.rpm
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/generic-release-notes-25-1.noarch.rpm
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/generic-release-25-1.noarch.rpm
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/module-build-macros-0.1-1.module_vim_master_20170119120233.src.rpm
/tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/results/module-build-macros-0.1-1.module_vim_master_20170119120233.noarch.rpm
<pre>
These will now be put into a container.

== putting the packages into a container ==

For this step you'll need to create a rpm repository of the new packages. 
<pre>
cd /tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/
mkdir vim-module-repo
cp results/*.rpm vim-module-repo
cd vim-module-repo
createrepo .

The /tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/vim-module-repo need to uploaded somewhere public so that docker can access it. O good place for that is p.e. fedorapeople

scp -r /tmp/results/module-vim-master-20170119120233/vim-module-repo karsten.fedorapeople.org:public_html/

You'll also need a dnf/yum configfile (/home/karsten/Modularity/modules/vim/vimmodule.repo) that points at this new repo:

cat /home/karsten/Modularity/modules/vim/vimmodule.repo
[vimmodule]
name=VIM module
failovermethod=priority
baseurl=https://karsten.fedorapeople.org/vim-module-repo/
enabled=1
metadata_expire=7d
gpgcheck=0
skip_if_unavailable=True

Now put everything into a Dockerfile. We're using Adama Samalik's fake-gen-core-module as there is no usable base-runtime module yet:

cat /home/karsten/Modularity/modules/vim/Dockerfile
FROM asamalik/fake-gen-core-module
ADD vimmodule.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/vimmodule.repo
RUN dnf -y install vim-enhanced

Building the module in Fedora infrastructure

This step uses a local module-build-service and other components in containers and passes results on to the Fedora staging infrastructure. A checkout of the module-build-service is required. Change into your local copy of this repository and run

docker-compose down
docker-compose up --build

This will start the module-build-service frontend and scheduler as well as fedmsg and you'll see when messages about module builds are coming in over the Federated Message Bus.