1Work Plan: NetBSD System Packages
2=================================
3
4This document is intended as a work plan for modification of the NetBSD
5install process to use `system packages' and `package sets' to install
6the base system instead of the current set tarballs.
7
8The steps toward this goal are as follows.  Step a.) has already occurred,
9and the remaining steps will begin this week, with changes influenced by
10discussion on these lists.
11
12    a.) update {make,check}flist, etc. to ignore all but the first
13          (whitespace separated) field of each line of each set file
14
15    b.) add at least additional fields to each line of each set list
16          containing the name of the pkg the file is to be associated
17          with
18
19    c.) add DESCR's, COMMENTs, etc. in a tree under src/distrib/pkg,
20          this tree will be  hierarchical, with an organization
21          similar to pkgsrc.
22
23    d.) add a script to churn through the set files and syspkg/
24          and register the existing system, removing anything in
25          the obsolete lists in the process.  This is working but
26          needs a complete rewrite.
27
28At this point, make build can register packages as if a packaged install
29had been done.  pkgs will be removable, and pkg versions will be usable
30in a DEPENDS=.  This will _greatly_ ease the process of upgrading from
31a NetBSD system installed at this point to a later packaged distribution.
32Now comes the fun part:
33
34    e.) modify the distribution building makefiles to build
35          binary packages from the packages registered in DESTDIR
36
37    f.) modify pkg_* to understand pkgsets which are tarballs of
38          pkgs with a contents file of some sort.  These will be
39          used by sysinst to 1.) minimize the number of files to
40          be downloaded and 2.) present the current selection
41          granularity by default.
42
43    g.) modify the make distrib tools to build these pkgsets from
44          the binary packages.
45
46    h.) modify sysinst's set installation to use these pkgsets
47          instead of the current (tarball) sets.
48
49    i.) modify sysinst to allow `zooming in' on a set and picking
50          what to install at pkg granularity, with dependencies
51          enforced and so on.
52
53------------------------------------------------------------------------
54$Id: WORKPLAN,v 1.1.1.1 2002/01/07 22:46:17 jwise Exp $
55