Mailing-List: contact ant-dev-help@jakarta.apache.org; run by ezmlm
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 11:31:32 -0800 (PST)
From: Josh Lucas <lucas@collab.net>
To: rpm-list@redhat.com
cc: ant-dev@jakarta.apache.org, arielpartners@earthlink.net
Subject: Re: Ant and RPM integration-- Has anyone looked into it?
In-Reply-To: <5.0.0.25.0.20010122140357.00a71d98@mail.earthlink.net>
Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.05.10101221125191.13282-100000@laswell.collab.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

On Mon, 22 Jan 2001, Ariel Partners LLC wrote:

> Hello:
> 
> We at Ariel are testing out both the Ant and RPM tools to help implement an
> automated build and release environment.  The obvious question ensues: what
> about an Ant task to control RPM?
> 
> Ant is (roughly) a replacement for Make, using XML build files instead of 
> Makefiles and
> written in 100% java.    In order to extend its capabilities, you write a 
> new subclass
> of "Task" in java and add it to a jar file-- rather than writing a make 
> rule using a
> pseudo shell language.  It is super portable-- as portable as java.
> 
> RPM (RPM Package Manager, formerly known as the Redhat Package Manager)
> does things like preparing packages, installing them, validating them,
> configuring them, building, etc.    The "spec" file is roughly RPM's 
> version of the
> Ant "build.xml" file.
> 
> As for the integration, at the very least the Ant task could call RPM with 
> certain options.
> But perhaps it could even help automate the creation of new RPM spec files?
> 
> Challenges: RPM is written in C.  I don't believe that it is open source.
> It requires a UNIX like environment in order to
> run including shells, certain GNU shared libraries, and the berkeley database.
> The RPM spec file looks alot like a Makefile, with all of its 
> "wrinkles."    On the whole,
> RPM is crying out to be rewritten using Java and XML IMHO ;-)
> 
> Anyway, has anyone else had this crazy idea?
> 
> Have any of the other Ant tasks had to call native code libraries?  Is it 
> folly to even
> think about it?  Should it instead be done by punting and calling out to a 
> shell task?
> 

I successfully build rpm's with Ant all the time.  I've currently just
called the <exec> task which makes a system call but I've been thinking of
working on an <rpm> task.


josh