LAVA no longer supports development on Ubuntu.
Packages for LAVA are available for:
When using the packages to develop LAVA, there is a change to the workflow compared to the old lava-deployment-tool buildouts.
Note
Changes to build dependencies between Debian unstable and Debian stable can cause changes to the builds for each suite. Always ensure that you build packages for unstable using unstable and build packages for stable using a chroot or VM or other stable environment. If a package built on unstable does not install on stable, rebuild the same changes in a stable environment and re-install. Backports to stable in Debian are always built in a stable chroot or VM for this reason.
LAVA provides a lava-dev
package which supplies all the dependencies which
are required to build local LAVA packages. This package is
intended primarily for developers working on laptops and other systems where
a full desktop environment is already installed:
$ sudo apt install lava-dev
Note
There are problems with the version of python-sphinx
in jessie
for building the documentation. Newer versions of lava-dev
depend on
the version of python-sphinx
from jessie-backports
:
$ sudo apt -t jessie-backports install python-sphinx
$ sudo apt install lava-dev
If you want to build local packages on a headless box or a system with limited
space, you can trim the set of dependencies by pre-installing
pinentry-curses
instead of the default pinentry-gtk2
. QEMU is still
required and will bring in some X11 dependencies but these are minimal compared
to the full dependencies of pinentry-gtk2
which is brought in via
gnupg2
:
$ sudo apt install pinentry-curses
$ sudo apt-get --purge remove pinentry-gtk2
$ sudo apt-get --purge autoremove
$ sudo apt install lava-dev
The lava-dev
package includes a helper script which is also present in the
source code in lava-server/share/
. The script requires a normal Debian
package build environment (i.e. dpkg-dev
) as well as the build-dependencies
of the package itself. The helper checks for package dependencies using
dpkg-checkbuilddeps
which halts upon failure with a message showing which
packages need to be installed.
The helper needs to know the name of the package to build and to be started from the directory containing the code for that package:
$ /usr/share/lava-server/debian-dev-build.sh -p lava-server
If you are building a package to be installed on Jessie, ensure that the
backports
packaging branch is used so that the packaging scripts can allow
for differences between unstable and jessie:
$ /usr/share/lava-server/debian-dev-build.sh -p lava-server -b backports
The packages will be built in a temporary directory using a version string
based on the current git tag and the time of the build. The helper outputs the
location of all the built packages at the end of a successful build, ready for
use with $ sudo dpkg -i
.
Note
the helper does not install the packages for you, neither do the
packages restart apache, although the lava-server
service will be
restarted each time lava-server
is installed or updated.
To install any package, including the developer build packages, the corresponding package must already be installed at the current production release version (or better), on the same machine. This ensures that all of the runtime dependencies already exist on the system. (If you are building for installation on Jessie, you will need a fully installed Jessie VM to test the packages built for Jessie.)
Any and all changes for inclusion into a future release need to be based on the current git master branch and will need rebasing from time to time as master moves ahead.
All testing of the LAVA source code is based on the relevant master branch which is then merged into the staging branch for testing as a release candidate. The final release involves merging staging into the release branch. Git tags are based on the release branch.
When using existing git tags or the release branch, create a new local branch and commit your changes to ensure that a local version string is used.
There can also be new dependencies added by changes in master and staging before those changes are merged into release or uploaded as a production release. When these changes are merged into master, the packaging will also be updated.
The local version is built (using ./version.py
) from these components:
package name
latest git tag name:
$ git tag --sort -v:refname|head -n1
2015.12
incremental revision list count:
$ git rev-list --count HEAD
5451
latest git hash:
$ git rev-parse --short HEAD
f9304da
The latest git hash is a reference to the latest commit. If you have not committed local changes (e.g. you are on a local branch based on a tag) then the short hash can be used to lookup the commit in the master branch, e.g.:
https://git.linaro.org/lava/lava-server.git/f9304da
LAVA uses a date-based release scheme and PEP440 imposes constraints on how local versions can be named and still work reliably with python-setuptools, yet these constraints differ between jessie and unstable:
jessie: lava-server-2015.12-5451.f9304da
unstable: lava-server-2015.12+5451.f9304da
There are also changes internally in the egg information used by setuptools when built on jessie and when built on unstable. Binary packages built on unstable will fail to install on jessie.
Always build packages on the suite you expect to use for installation.
Packages available from the LAVA repositories are built on Jessie (using sbuild) using the lava-buildd scripts.
The helper supports lava-server
and lava-dispatcher
:
$ sudo apt install lava-dev
$ git clone https://git.linaro.org/git/lava/lava-server.git
$ cd lava-server
$ /usr/share/lava-server/debian-dev-build.sh -p lava-server
$ git clone https://git.linaro.org/git/lava/lava-dispatcher.git
$ cd lava-dispatcher
$ /usr/share/lava-server/debian-dev-build.sh -p lava-dispatcher
lava-dispatcher
has architecture-dependent dependencies. By default, the
package is built for the native architecture and can only be installed on that
architecture. To build for a different architecture, e.g. armhf, use:
$ /usr/share/lava-server/debian-dev-build.sh -p lava-dispatcher -a armhf
This does a binary build, so the source is not included, which allows these
builds to be included in a local repository, e.g. using reprepro
.
Helpers for other distributions may be added in due course. Patches welcome.
LAVA uses git tags and the developer build adds a suffix to the tag for each
local build - the suffix is formed from the git rev-list --count
(to get a
sequential, unique, identifier) and the git rev-parse --short
hash to
identify the latest git commit in the branch upon which this build is based.
The git short hash can be looked up on the git.linaro.org
site,
irrespective of which release tag is the current. For example, build version
2015.07.5333.1521ddb-1
relates directly to
https://git.linaro.org/lava/lava-server.git/1521ddb
From August 2015, LAVA uses git tags without a leading zero on the month
number, in accordance with PEP440, so the git tag will be 2015.8
instead of
2015.07
used for the previous release tag.
The paths to execute LAVA python scripts have changed and developing LAVA based on packages has a different workflow.
Modified files can be copied to the equivalent python path. The current LAVA
packages use python2.7, so the path is beneath
/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/
with sudo:
$ sudo cp <git-path> /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/<git-path>
Tip
This path has recently changed - there are no files in
/usr/share/pyshared/
after change in python2.7.
However, this does simplify changes which involve new
files.
Different actions are needed for local changes to take effect, depending on the type of file(s) updated:
templates/*/*.html | next browser refresh (F5/Ctrl-R) |
device-types/*.jinja2 | next testjob submission |
devices/*.jinja2 | next testjob submission |
*_app/*.py | $ sudo apache2ctl restart |
*_daemon/*.py | $ sudo service lava-server restart |
LAVA installs the postgresql
package which installs the current default
version of postgresql. When this default changes in Debian, a second package
will be added to your system which will start with no actual data.
Debian gives a notice similar to this when a new version of postgres is installed:
Default clusters and upgrading
------------------------------
When installing a postgresql-X.Y package from scratch, a default
cluster 'main' will automatically be created. This operation is
equivalent to doing 'pg_createcluster X.Y main --start'.
Due to this default cluster, an immediate attempt to upgrade an
earlier 'main' cluster to a new version will fail and you need to
remove the newer default cluster first. E. g., if you have
postgresql-8.2 installed and want to upgrade to 8.3, you first install
postgresql-8.3:
apt install postgresql-8.3
Then drop the default 8.3 cluster:
pg_dropcluster 8.3 main --stop
And then upgrade the 8.2 cluster to 8.3:
pg_upgradecluster 8.2 main
See also https://askubuntu.com/questions/66194/how-do-i-migrate-my-postgres-data-from-8-4-to-9-1
Check your existing clusters:
$ sudo pg_lsclusters
Stop postgresql (stops both versions):
$ sudo service postgresql stop
Drop the main cluster of the NEW postgres as this is empty:
$ sudo pg_dropcluster 9.4 main --stop
Postgresql knows which version is the current default, so just tell postgresql which is the old version to migrate the data into the (empty) new one:
$ sudo pg_upgradecluster 9.3 main
Disabling connections to the old cluster during upgrade...
Restarting old cluster with restricted connections...
Creating new cluster 9.4/main ...
config /etc/postgresql/9.4/main
data /var/lib/postgresql/9.4/main
locale en_GB.UTF-8
port 5433
Disabling connections to the new cluster during upgrade...
Roles, databases, schemas, ACLs...
Fixing hardcoded library paths for stored procedures...
Upgrading database postgres...
Analyzing database postgres...
Fixing hardcoded library paths for stored procedures...
Upgrading database lavapdu...
Analyzing database lavapdu...
Fixing hardcoded library paths for stored procedures...
Upgrading database lavaserver...
Analyzing database lavaserver...
Fixing hardcoded library paths for stored procedures...
Upgrading database devel...
Analyzing database devel...
Fixing hardcoded library paths for stored procedures...
Upgrading database template1...
Analyzing database template1...
Re-enabling connections to the old cluster...
Re-enabling connections to the new cluster...
Copying old configuration files...
Copying old start.conf...
Copying old pg_ctl.conf...
Stopping target cluster...
Stopping old cluster...
Disabling automatic startup of old cluster...
Configuring old cluster to use a different port (5433)...
Starting target cluster on the original port...
Success. Please check that the upgraded cluster works. If it does,
you can remove the old cluster with
pg_dropcluster 9.3 main
Check that the instance is still running. Note that the port of the new postgresql server will have been upgraded to the port used for the old postgresql server automatically. Check that this is the case:
$ grep port /etc/postgresql/9.4/main/postgresql.conf
port = 5432
Drop the old cluster:
$ sudo pg_dropcluster 9.3 main
Now the old database package can be removed:
$ sudo apt remove postgresql-9.3
Javascript has particular issues in distributions, often the version of a
Javascript file is out of step with the version available in the distribution
or not packaged at all. lava-server
embeds javascript files in the
static/js
directories and maintains a list of files which are replaced with
symlinks during a Debian package build. The list is in
share/javascript.yaml
and the replacement of matching files is done
using share/javascript.py
. Other distribution builds are invited to use
the same script or provide patches if the paths within the script need
modification.
After 2015.12 release, all of the .min.js files in the package are removed from VCS and minified files are created at build time. Templates in the system use only minified versions of the javascript files so after the release package rebuild will be mandatory.
The primary concern is security fixes. Distributions release with a particular
release of LAVA and may need to fix security problems in that release. If the
file is replaced by a symlink to an external package in the distribution, then
the security problem and fix migrate to that package. LAVA tracks these files
in share/javascript.yaml
. Files which only exist in LAVA or exist at a
different version to the one available in the distribution, need to be patched
within LAVA. Javascript files created by LAVA are packaged as editable source
code and patches to these files will take effect in LAVA after a simple restart
of apache and a clearing of any browser cache. Problems arise when the
javascript files in the LAVA source code have been minified, resulting in a
.min.js
file which is not suitable for editing or patching.
The source code for the minified JS used in LAVA is provided in the LAVA source code, alongside the minified version. However, there is a lack of suitable tools to convert changes to the source file into a comparable minified file. If these files need changes, the correct fix would be to patch the unminified javascript and copy the modified file over the top of the minified version. This loses the advantages of minification but gains the benefit of a known security fix.
Work is ongoing upstream to resolve the remaining minified javascript files:
share/javascript.yaml
and not written by LAVA, specify this location
in a README
in the relevant js/
directory along with
details, if any, of how a modified file can be minified or whether a
modified file should simply replace the minified file.share/javascript.yaml
when packages
become available.share/javascript.py
so that minification happens
at the same point as replacement of embedded javascript with symlinks to
externally provided files.From time to time, there can be packaging changes required to handle changes in
the LAVA upstream codebase. If you have write access to the packaging
repository, changes to the packaging can be tested by pushing to a public
branch and passing the -b
option to debian-dev-build-sh
:
$ /usr/share/lava-server/debian-dev-build.sh -p lava-server -b docs
or for installation on jessie:
$ /usr/share/lava-server/debian-dev-build.sh -p lava-server -b backports
lava-server
is the same for all architectures but lava-dispatcher
has a
different set of dependencies depending on the build architecture. To build an
armhf
package of lava-dispatcher using the developer scripts, use:
$ /usr/share/lava-server/debian-dev-build.sh -p lava-dispatcher -a armhf
When trying to investigate LAVA web pages generation we advise you to use django-debug-toolbar. This is a Django application that provide more information on how the page was rendered, including:
For instance, the toolbar is a really helpful resource to debug the Django ORM.
Once the python-django-debug-toolbar
package is installed, the toolbar
needs to be enabled in the instance. Two settings are required in
/etc/lava-server/settings.conf
"DEBUG": true,
"USE_DEBUG_TOOLBAR": true,
Note
settings.conf
is JSON syntax, so ensure that the previous
line ends with a comma and that the resulting file validates as JSON.
Use JSONLINT
The toolbar can be disabled without disabling django debug but django must be in debug mode for the toolbar to be loaded at all.
Restart the django
related services to complete the installation of the
toolbar:
sudo service lava-server restart
sudo apache2ctl restart
Installation can be checked using lava-server manage shell
:
>>> from django.conf import settings
>>> 'debug_toolbar' in settings.INSTALLED_APPS
True
See also
In order to see the toolbar, you should also check the value of INTERNAL_IPS. Local
addresses 127.0.0.1
and ::1
are enabled by default.
To add more addresses, set INTERNAL_IPS
to a list of addresses in
/etc/lava-server/settings.conf
, (JSON syntax) for example:
"INTERNAL_IPS": ["192.168.0.5", "10.0.0.6"],
These value depends on your setup. But if you don’t see the toolbar that’s the first think to look at.
Apache then needs access to django-debug-toolbar CSS and JS files:
sudo su -
cd /usr/share/lava-server/static/
ln -s /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/debug_toolbar/static/debug_toolbar .
In /etc/lava-server/settings.conf
remove the reference to htdocs in
STATICFILES_DIRS
. Django-debug-toolbar does check that all directories
listed in STATICFILES_DIRS
exists. While this is only a leftover from
previous versions of LAVA installer that is not needed anymore.
Once the changes are complete, ensure the settings are loaded by restarting both apache2 and django:
sudo service lava-server restart
sudo apache2ctl restart
Keep in mind that django-debug-toolbar has some overhead on the webpage generation and should only be used while debugging.
Django-debug-toolbar can be disabled, while not debugging, by changing the
value of USE_DEBUG_TOOLBAR
in /etc/lava-server/settings.conf
to
false
or by changing the ̀DEBUG
level in
/etc/lava-server/settings.conf
to DEBUG: false
.
Ensure the settings are reloaded by restarting both apache2 and django:
sudo service lava-server restart
sudo apache2ctl restart