# Bob - A Package Builder
Bob's goal is to become a simple but powerful, complete, and user-friendly
utility for building pkgsrc packages.
## Status
- [x] Basic app, config files, etc.
- [x] Sandboxes implemented for illumos, macOS, NetBSD, and Linux.
- [x] Threaded scan and build processes inside sandboxes.
- [x] Scan resolution / DAG.
- [x] Ratatui-based terminal interface showing current progress.
- [x] Basic HTML reports.
## Getting Started
Install bob either by:
* Cloning this repository and running `cargo build --release`
* Running `cargo install pkgbob` to install directly from crates.io.
Run `bob init /path/to/dir` to generate a directory containing
`config.lua` and all the scripts necessary to build packages.
On non-NetBSD systems you will need a pkgsrc bootstrap kit. By default bob
will look for `bootstrap.tar.gz` inside the configuration directory.
Review `config.lua` and ensure that all of the paths are correct for your
target environment. The defaults have been chosen to work mostly out of the
box.
When you are happy with the configuration, either run:
```
$ cd /path/to/bob/init/dir
$ bob build
```
or:
```
$ bob -c /path/to/bob/init/dir/config.lua build
```
and bob will proceed to:
* Create a single sandbox under `sandboxes.basedir`.
* Launch `options.scan_threads` number of scan processes inside the sandbox,
scanning the package directories defined in `pkgsrc.pkgpaths`, recursively
discovering dependencies until a full dependency tree has been calculated.
* Resolve the scan (ensure that all scanned packages are discoverable).
* Destroy the scan sandbox, and create `options.build_threads` number of build
sandboxes.
* Launch a build process in sandbox, building packages bottom-up until all have
been processed.
* Destroy the build sandboxes and generate a summary and HTML report.
## Design Goals
There are two main methods currently used to update a pkgsrc installation.
Update-in-place using tools such as `pkg_chk` or `pkg_rolling-replace`.
These tools operate directly on the target host, upgrading packages in
turn. These are the simplest to set up and use, and so are reasonable
popular amongst users, but have some major drawbacks:
* Upgrading in place means that if a build error is encountered, the
system may be left in a degraded state until the issue is fixed.
* Building directly on the system may end up finding tools and libraries on
the host system that wouldn't be found otherwise, which may mask issues that
would be exposed when building in a clean environment.
* Only one build can happen at a time, and dependency issues aren't discovered
until build time.
Bulk builds using `pbulk` allow packages to be built inside clean sandboxes,
and with the appropriate patches mean that builds can be performed in parallel.
These solve a number of the problems with update-in-place builds, but do have
their own drawbacks:
* Historically pbulk has been notoriously difficult to set up and configure,
and any runtime problems can be very hard to diagnose.
* Support for concurrent builds and sandbox configuration is left to external
patches and the user to configure manually.
* A separate tool such as `pkgin` needs to be used to upgrade the system using
the resulting packages.
Bob aims to combine these methods into a best-of-both approach:
* Automatically set up build sandboxes, hiding away all of the complexity
involved trying to support multiple operating systems.
* Perform a pbulk-style scan of the requested packages to ensure all of the
dependencies are correct.
* Build packages inside sandboxes, using a directed acyclic graph to perform
builds in the correct order, and take advantage of parallel builds where
possible.
all with a user-friendly and easy to configure interface.