opt

Inspired by How I Do, I decided to formalize my setup... the applications and configuration I do on top of the base system. The idea is to unpack a tarball and then run init.sh and my computer will configure itself approximately how I like. For work, I only use debian and ubuntu, so this is only designed to work on these platforms. The flow is something like this:

• init.sh
  • Figures out which distro is running and if it's debian it adds contrib, non-free components to the sources and the *-backport suite.
  • Installs the pre-dependencies needed to run the Makefile.
  • Runs make base-system, make install-dependencies and make.
• make base-system
  • Creates a meta-package task-base with all currently installed packages as dependencies.
  • task-base is installed.
  • All other manual packages are marked auto.
• make install-dependencies
  • Visits all subtargets collecting dependencies to install from the repos and elsewhere.
  • Adds these as dependencies of a meta-package task-opt.
  • task-opt is installed w/ these dependencies.
  • All dependencies marked manual are marked auto.
  • make sudo-configure is run to allow subtargets to the system (things like adding the current user to the docker group).
• make
  • make dependencies runs which checks if all dependencies are installed and if not runs make install-dependencies
  • make install visits each subtarget and runs the install goal
  • make post-configure allows subtargets to configure their software.

deploy.tar

The tarball that conveys this mechanism is also built by the makefile. It includes everything needed to run the makefile as well as configuration for things like ssh and gnupg (i.e., "secrets") and configuration managed by vcsh.

test

To test this process, the makefile can build docker images for both debian and ubuntu which it runs init.sh inside.

task-base and task-opt

The meta-packages are meant to help organize the system. When task-opt and its dependencies are uninstalled, the system is returned to its "base" state. To add/remove new packages to task-opt, they simply needed to be added/removed to/from one of the subtargets. apt-packages is provided for packages that fulfill no dependency of another subtarget. To add a package to task-base simply install it normally and run make base-system. For removal, opt/bin/opt-base-remove is provided. The idea is that things like drivers or the desktop environment can be added to task-base, these are things specific to the system, while task-opt is specific to the user. Packages installed outside these meta-packages will show up in apt-mark showmanual. This way they can easily be uninstalled if they are not useful or added to task-base or task-opt as appropriate.