6 Examples

Here are some example configuration files.

6.1 Single Installer

The simplest possible configuration file is

#lang distro-build/config

(machine)

In fact, this configuration file is created automatically as "build/site.rkt" (if the file does not exist already) and used as the default configuration. With this configuration,

  make installers

creates an installer in "build/installers" for the platform that is used to create the installer.

6.2 Installer Web Page

To make a web page that serves both a minimal installer and packages, create a "site.rkt" file with

#lang distro-build/config

(sequential

;; The packages that will be available:

#:pkgs '("main-distribution")

;; FIXME: the URL where the installer and packages will be:

#:dist-base-url "http://my-server.domain/snapshot/"

(machine

;; FIXME: the way the installer is described on the web page:

#:name "Minimal Racket | My Platform"

;; The packages in this installer:

#:pkgs '()))

then

  make site CONFIG=site.rkt

creates a "build/site" directory that you can move to your web server’s "snapshot" directory, so that "build/site/index.html" is the main page, and so on.

6.3 Accumulated Shapshots Web Page

To make a web site that provides some number (5, by default) of snapshots, use (current-stamp) when constructing the #:dist-base-url value. Also, use (current-stamp) as the directory for assembling the site:

#lang distro-build/config

(sequential

;; The packages that will be available:

#:pkgs '("gui-lib")

;; FIXME: the URL where the installer and packages will be:

#:dist-base-url (string-append "http://my-server.domain/snapshots/"

(current-stamp) "/")

;; The local directory where a snapshot is written

#:site-dest (build-path "build/site" (current-stamp))

(machine

;; FIXME: the way the installer is described on the web page:

#:name "Minimal Racket | My Platform"

;; The packages in this installer:

#:pkgs '()))

Then,

  make snapshot-site CONFIG=site.rkt

creates a "build/site" directory that you can move to your web server’s "snapshots" directory, so that "build/site/index.html" is the main page that initially points to "build/site/‹stamp›/index.html", and so on. To make a newer snapshot, update the Git repository, leave "build/site" in place, and run

  make snapshot-site CONFIG=site.rkt

again. The new installers will go into a new <stamp> subdirectory, and the main "index.html" file will be rewritten to point to them.

6.4 Multiple Platforms

A configuration module that drives multiple clients to build installers might look like this:

#lang distro-build/config

(sequential

#:pkgs '("drracket")

#:server-hosts '() ; Insecure? See below.

(machine

#:desc "Linux (32-bit, Precise Pangolin)"

#:name "Ubuntu 32"

#:vbox "Ubuntu 12.04"

#:host "192.168.56.102")

(machine

#:desc "Windows (64-bit)"

#:name "Windows 64"

#:host "10.0.0.7"

#:server "10.0.0.1"

#:dir "c:\\Users\\racket\\build\\plt"

#:platform 'windows

#:bits 64))

The configuration describes using the hosts "192.168.56.1" and "10.0.0.7" for Linux and Windows builds, respectively, which are run one at a time.

The Linux machine runs in VirtualBox on the server machine (in a virtual machine named "Ubuntu 12.04"). It contacts the server still as localhost, and that works because the SSH connection to the Linux machine creates a tunnel (at the same port as the server’s, which defaults to 9440).

The Windows machine uses freeSSHd (not a bash-based SSH server like Cygwin) and communicates back to the server as "10.0.0.1" instead of using an SSH tunnel. To make that work, #:server-hosts is specified as the empty list to make the server listen on all interfaces (instead of just "localhost")—which is possibly less secure than the default restriction that allows build-server connections only via "localhost".

With this configuration file in "site.rkt",

  make installers CONFIG=site.rkt

produces two installers, both in "build/installers", and a hash table in "table.rktd" that maps "Linux (32-bit, Precise Pangolin)" to the Linux installer and "Windows (64-bit)" to the Windows installer.