GSOC 2012/Student Application nehaljwani/OnDemandBuildService

On-Demand Fedora Build Service

Contact Information

• Email Address: nehaljw.kkd1@gmail.com
• Telephone: +919052480529
• Blog URL: commandlinewani.blogspot.com
• Freenode IRC Nick: nehaljwani

NOTE: We require all students to blog about the progress of their project time to time.

You are strongly encouraged to register on the Freenode network and participate in our IRC channels. For more information and other instructions, see:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/GSOC_2012

Please answer following questions.

Why do you want to work with the Fedora Project?

I was introduced to linux last year. Out of all the available distros out there, because of it's simple UI and ease of administrative tasks, I liked Fedora the most. Working with fedora project will enhance my skills and I will be able to acquire more knowledge of open source programs. My interest lies in contributing to open source software programs and Fedora Project is a very nice platform for it. I have been, in the past year exploring the operating system and the way in which it is managed by developers. While using the OS, I found that having desired packages at one place is very difficult. The proposed project will help in creating ready-made image(s) with the required packages and pose a solution for the problem. Hence, I would like to contribute to the proposed project. Also, I will continue to contribute to the project, regardless of the status of my proposal.

Do you have any past involvement with the Fedora project or with any another open source project as a contributor (if possible please add some references as well)?

1. No, this is my first time.

Did you participate with the past GSoC programs, if so which years, which organizations?

1. No, this is my first time.

Will you continue contributing/ supporting the Fedora project after the GSoC 2012 program, if yes, which team(s)/area(s), you are interested with?

1. Yes, Definitely I would like to contribute to:

Fedora Packaging

Why should we choose you over the other applicants?

• I have 3 months free during this summer, so I'll be able to donate as much time as possible on the project that I choose.

• I have hands on experience in C, HTML, python, bash.

• I have played quite a lot with source codes of programs, because in my institution, root access is not provided to undergrads. So, I have tweaked a lot of programs to suite our needs and compiled them for use on our workspace machines.

• I posses knowledge of subversion systems[SVN,git] and building Fedora live CDs.

• I am dedicated to the work I do and believe in "Do what you love, love what you do!". I am quite confident that I'll be able to contribute to this project with my efforts at their best!

Proposal Description

This page shall describe the proposed project.

An overview of your proposal

On Demand Build Service: This project is intended to help the developers, testers, etc who need to custom-install Fedora for specific purposes by creating a web interface capable of:

• Building and hosting images of Fedora (DVD,CD,Live)[Desktop/KDESpin/LXDESpin/XfceSpin]
• Packages from the following repos can be included: release,updates,update-testing
• Provide an API as well as CLI for easy-to select, grab and push.
• The key concept is the ability to pull these newer builds (that wouldn't otherwise be pulled in to the .iso) in to the image build.

The need you believe it fulfills

This will help users in the following manner:

• First, testers will easily be able to judge the performance of unstable programs on the TC/RC builds.
• The project will resolve the problem of 'yum install' this , 'yum install' that for each program that a user of a specific organisation/institution requires for his work. Admins/Server People will find this tool very helpful as they can build an image in custom mode and use it on several workstations. Also, people running slow internet connections will find this beneficial.

Any relevant experience you have

Well, I have experience in automation using scripts and I have the knowledge of creating LiveCDs. Currently, I am exploring the packaging services of Fedora which include building rpms and pushing them into repositories.

How do you intend to implement your proposal

• Capturing packages :

- Creation of pseudo-repositories which will have packages from updates, update-testing, koji and release. Implementation of a virtual repository where-in the user can select the required package according to his use and add it to his LiveCD - The repo will be updated regularly so that development versions of various packages are easily available

• Development of web-based UI:

-The web-based interface will have the following features:

1. The user will be able to create an account which will store all of his previous requests. So that if he wants to make minor changes to previous ones, it will be easy.

2. Since the requests will be pushed into a job queue and will be taken care of by the master node, status of the ongoing process will be available to the user.

3. Once the image is made, it will be available for download from the image-hosting service for a short span of time, say 5 days. User will be notified and the script used for generating will be stored in for future use.

Key Points:

• Implementation of startup file
• Implementation of job queue management system
• Handling the master node
• Implementation of the web-interface

Final deliverable of the proposal at the end of the period

• Build Services being processed through web2py on the master node
• Client build services running on designated build nodes
• A REST API to the build service
• Sqlite/MySql storing old requests along with the scripts generated

A rough timeline for your progress

• Till May 15: Developing an automated script like this [Made By Mentor] for retrieving data from repos and creating virtual-repos.

• May 16 - June 15 Testing Scripts and implementing the build services, development of web-ui.

• June 16 - July 15 Testing of interface, development of RESTful API and job queueing system

• July 16 - August 5 Testing of API and queueing system, improving the user interface for normal users, adding xtra features

• August 5 - August 10 Final testing and documentation

Have you communicated with a potential mentor? If so, who?

• Tim Flink
• Student Mentor : Amit K Saha