7. Deploying and Testing an Anaconda Add-on

⁠7. Deploying and Testing an Anaconda Add-on

As mentioned previously, there are some packages required for development of an Anaconda ad-don. In particular, the anaconda-widgets and anaconda-widgets-devel packages that contain the widgets, glade specifications etc. and the anaconda package that contains the pyanaconda Python package (needed for running pylint checks and so on).

To test a newly created add-on, you must place it into the installer runtime environment and let Anaconda collect the add-on classes and definitions. Add-ons are collected from the /usr/share/anaconda/addons/ directory, which is expected to contain your add-ons Python packages (directory trees).

The most simple way to load your add-on is to create an identical directory structure somewhere on your system (e.g. ~/temp/usr/share/anaconda/addons/), place a copy of your add-on's package into it, and then execute the following command:

$ find . | cpio -c -o | gzip -9 > addon_updates.img

The command creates an archive which can be used as a so-called updates image. This image can then be placed on a web server or copied to a USB flash drive, and then loaded from the boot menu using the inst.updates= boot option. The image will then be loaded and its contents will be used to add or replace any files in the installation environment. ⁠^[5]

For information about boot options, see the Fedora Installation Guide.

Once an add-on is tested and ready for deployment, you should package it as a Fedora package to facilitate the creation of installation images containing your add-on (so-called composes). This requires you to write a spec file which defines and describes the RPM package.

Below is an example of a basic spec file for an add-on:

⁠

Example 15. Sample RPM Spec File


Name:           example-anaconda-addon
Version:        0.1
Release:        1%{?dist}
Summary:        Anaconda addon useful for something in the installation process

License:        GPLv2+
URL:            https://git.fedorahosted.org/cgit/example-anaconda-addon.git

Source0:        %{name}-%{version}.tar.gz

BuildArch:      noarch
BuildRequires:  python2-devel
BuildRequires:  anaconda >= 19
Requires:       anaconda >= 19

%description
This is an addon that brings some useful additional functionality to the
Anaconda installer.

%prep
%setup -q

%build

%check
make test

%install
make install DESTDIR=%{buildroot}

%files
%{_datadir}/anaconda/addons/org_fedora_example

%doc COPYING ChangeLog README

%changelog
* Mon Jan 6 2014 Great Author <great.author@example.com> - 0.1-1
- Initial RPM for the example-anaconda-addon

The above spec file makes use of the make utility with the following example Makefile:

⁠

Example 16. Sample Makefile


NAME = example-anaconda-addon

VERSION = 0.1

ADDON = org_fedora_example
TESTS = tests

FILES = $(ADDON) \
        $(TESTS) \
        COPYING \
        Makefile \
        README

EXCLUDES = \
        *.pyc

all:
        @echo "usage: make dist"
        @echo "       make test"
        @echo "       make install"
        @echo "       make uninstall"

DISTNAME = $(NAME)-$(VERSION)
ADDONDIR = /usr/share/anaconda/addons/
DISTBALL = $(DISTNAME).tar.gz

install:
        mkdir -p $(DESTDIR)$(ADDONDIR)
        cp -rv $(ADDON) $(DESTDIR)$(ADDONDIR)

uninstall:
        rm -rfv $(DESTDIR)$(ADDONDIR)

dist:
        rm -rf $(DISTNAME)
        mkdir -p $(DISTNAME)
        @if test -d ".git"; \
        then \
                echo Creating ChangeLog && \
                ( cd "$(top_srcdir)" && \
                  echo '# Generate automatically. Do not edit.'; echo; \
                  git log --stat --date=short ) > ChangeLog.tmp \
                && mv -f ChangeLog.tmp $(DISTNAME)/ChangeLog \
                || ( rm -f ChangeLog.tmp ; \
                     echo Failed to generate ChangeLog >&2 ); \
        else \
                echo A git clone is required to generate a ChangeLog >&2; \
        fi
        for file in $(FILES); do \
                cp -rpv $$file $(DISTNAME)/$$file; \
        done
        for excl in $(EXCLUDES); do \
                find $(DISTNAME) -name "$$excl" -delete; \
        done
        tar -czvf $(DISTBALL) $(DISTNAME)
        rm -rf $(DISTNAME)
test:
        PYTHONPATH=. nosetests --processes=-1 -vw tests/

^[5] overwriting the files that already exist with the files from the updates image (which is how the Anaconda developers use those files for testing patches)