Package Manager Manager Beta

Bedrock Linux's Package Manager Manager, or pmm, is now available in Bedrock's beta channel. This subsystem provides Bedrock-aware abstractions for multi-package-manager and cross-package-manager operations.

If you would like to help test it, first register your system with the beta channel and update to the latest beta. Make sure you merge any update-provided /bedrock/etc/bedrock.conf files into your main bedrock.conf, as this feature includes a new[pmm]` configuration section.

pmm will not be accessible immediately after updating to the corresponding beta. You will need to first populate the user_interface field of the new [pmm] section in bedrock.conf. See the comments above user_interface. Once you have done that, run brl apply as root. pmm should now be in your $PATH; try running pmm --help.

Things to test

Things to test include:

• All [pmm] configuation fields.
  • Known issue: The ignore-non-system-package-managers field is effectively a no-op, as pmm does not support any non-system package managers at this point in time. Some are planned to be added later.
• All user interfaces available fit the general usage pattern of the package manager they are mimicking.
• All functionality from all user interfaces available work as described/expected.
• All underlying package manager operations work as described/expected.
• All pmm-specific flags (e.g. --every, --newest) work as expected
• The pmm-specific world file operations (e.g. --diff-world) work as expected.
• Everything works when updating from a previous release to the beta.
• Everything works from a fresh install of the given beta.

Adding new package managers

The focus of the beta is intended to be polishing the existing functionality rather than extending it. However, if you wish to begin preliminary work on new pmm functionality while pmm is still in beta, note:

• Create a new file in /bedrock/share/pmm/package_managers/ named after the new package manager.
• Populate the same set of fields found in other /bedrock/share/pmm/package_managers/ entries.
• See /bedrock/share/pmm/help for descriptions of corresponding fields.
  • Additionally, note the presence of system_package_managers[<package-manager>] is used to indicate the package manager is a system package manager and central to the corresponding stratum.
  • Additionally, package_manager_canary_executable[] is used to map a package manager name to an executable whose presence indicates the package manager exists in the stratum. These are usually the same (e.g. the apt package manager provides the apt executable) but not always (e.g. the xbps package manager does not have an xbps executable).
• If the package manager does not surface a given piece of functionality such that there is no correpsonding user interface for it, create an empty user_interface[] value for the given functionality.
• Do not populate a combine implementations[] field if the package manager cannot do all operations in one command. Instead, implement the component implementations[]; pmm will break an instruction up into components accordingly.
• If the package manager does not cleanly implement a given operation, make a judgement call about what should be done if the implementations[] is requested by the user. Is there something similar enough that is likely what the user meant? If so, populate implementations[] accordingly. Is there nothing which makes sense? Then leave it blank.
• If there are multiple valid names to refer to a given package, ensure the Internal pmm operations handles all of them. For example emerge understands that vim refers to app-editors/vim; ensure pmm does as well.
• Run pmm --check-pmm-configuration to sanity check your changes before attempting to submit them to Bedrock.

Adding new operations

The focus of the beta is intended to be polishing the existing functionality rather than extending it. However, if you wish to begin preliminary work on new pmm functionality while pmm is still in beta, note:

• Add the new field to /bedrock/share/pmm/help, describing what it does.
• Add the new field to /bedrock/share/pmm/operations. If it is similar enough to another pmm operation, you may be able to share the same pattern as an existing operation. Otherwise, you may need to extend core pmm functionality in /bedrock/libexec/pmm to support it.
• If it the operation is pmm specific, add it to /bedrock/share/pmm/package_managers/pmm utilizig the "*" package manager name.
• If it the operation is a general package manager concept, add it to all /bedrock/share/pmm/package_managers/* files other than pmm.
• Run pmm --check-pmm-configuration to sanity check your changes before attempting to submit them to Bedrock.