From: Andrew Walrond <andrew@...>
Date: 2003-06-12T04:45:29+09:00
Subject: Re: Rubyx (provisionally named) linux distro. Made by and run by Ruby

Phil Tomson wrote:
> In article <3EE6D9E4.9020105@walrond.org>,
> Andrew Walrond  <andrew@walrond.org> wrote:
> 
>>I have developed a little script which creates a simple linux distro 
> 
>>from source. While not complete by any means, it does work and has some 
> 
>>nice features, such as a modern ruby based init system.
> 
> 
> This sounds very cool.

It is ;)

>>
>>Features of Rubyx:
>>	simplified (modern) directory structure
> 
> 
> ....not sure what you mean here.

Well; The basic file structure has been rationalised, and each package 
exists in its own directory; pkg/bash, pkg/glibc etc so its real easy to 
see what file belongs to which package. Turns one big amorphous blob of 
files into easily understandable and manageable chunks. Hard links back 
into bin etc make everything work as expected.

>>	new ruby based init script
>>	Downloads and build all packages from source
> 
> kind of like gentoo?  Does it deal with dependencies?

Yes. I used to use gentoo ;)  Yes, dependancies are dealt with. If you 
install a new package (eg xfree86) which an already package can use the 
facilities of (eg xemacs), it will automatically be rebuilt. etc etc etc
It will even automatically rebuild packages containing kernel modules if 
you install a new kernel. Similarly, on uninstall, it removes anything 
dependant on the uninstalled package, and rebuilds stuff that was using 
it but can do without it now its gone. And so on
All in a handful of lines of ruby :)

Oh, and the builds are all done in parallel; A big win if you have 
multiple or hyperthreaded cpus. I can do a complete bootstrap of a 
system (from nothing) in 43minutes. YMMV ;)

>>	Choose your preferred version of kernel, glibc, binutils, gcc
> 
> This sounds nice too.
> 
>>	Supports NPTL in glibc
>>	powerful install and uninstall facilities
>>
> So is it sort of like Gentoo, but based on Ruby instead of Python?

Well, I've gone from RedHat, to Gentoo, to Rubyx on all my servers, but 
still have to sort out kde/gnome etc before I move my desktop over. 
Won't be long though.

More for the expert than gentoo though; If you regularly play with 
custom kernels, custom glibc and nptl, latest gcc etc, then this is a 
very nice tool. Its also easy to recreate known-good configurations.

To build a distro, you just do something like

rubyx --root mydistrodir --krep linux-2.4 --ktag v2.4.21-rc7 --glibc 
HEAD --arch pentium4 --distro net disk

Here is the help output

Rubyx v0.9
     --help                       I guess you know about this

ENVIRONMENT:
     --krep      <repository>     List or set kernel repository
     --ktag      <tag>            List or set kernel version tag
     --glibc     <tag>            List or set glibc version tag
     --tlib      <library>        List or set thread library
     --gcc       <tag>            List or set gcc version tag
     --lang      ada,c,c++,f77,
                     java,objc    Set required gcc compilers
     --binu      <tag>            List or set binutils version tag
     --arch      <architecture>   List or set host architecture
     --c         options          Set the required C option flags
     --c++       options          Set the required C++ option flags
     --dj        jobs             Set maximum parallel downloads
     --dt        jobs             Set maximum download tries
     --mj        jobs             Set maximum parallel make threads

QUERY:
     --config                     Show build settings
     --group     <pattern|regex>  List matching groups
     --package   <pattern|regex>  List matching packages

COMMANDS:
     --download  grp|pkg ...      Download selected packages/groups
     --install   grp|pkg ...      Build and install packages
     --uninstall grp|pkg ...      Uninstall packages
     --relink    grp|pkg ...      Relink all installed packages
     --distro    <grp|pkg ...>    Build a complete distro
     --root      path             Change root of build
     --chroot    path <command>   Chroot into distro, optional command
     --backup    filename         Backup configuration files

MODIFIERS:
     --check                      Do 'make check' or equivalents
     --strip                      Strip binaries
     --force                      Force rebuild/reinstall
     --pretend                    To see what would happen...
     --verbose                    Display more information
Elapsed time: 0h 0m 0s


Andrew