GODI news

[Gerd Stolpmann <gerd@gerd-stolpmann.de>]

Hi caml-list,

Welcome to GODI news, the newsletter that informs you about updates of
GODI, the source-based O'Caml distribution.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. GODI upgrades to O'Caml 3.08.3
2. Bootstrap problems for NetBSD and Cygwin solved
3. Progress of the GODI package management system
4. Where to find more information about GODI
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1. GODI UPGRADES TO O'CAML 3.08.3

The GODI project recently upgraded to O'Caml 3.08.3. This means that the
"3.08" branch of the distribution now bases on this O'Caml version
instead of the formerly used version 3.08.1. The old version is
discontinued at the same moment.

Existing installations of GODI can be easily upgraded using the standard
mechanism. This works in an almost fully automatic way, GODI takes care
not to only build the new O'Caml base but also rebuilds all dependent
libraries. Although well tested, it is recommended to save a copy of the
old installation before trying the update.

To start the update, invoke godi_console in interactive mode, and do:

- Update the list of packages
- Go into the menu where one can select the packages. Press 'u'
  to upgrade the packages, and confirm with 'o'. Start the installation
  as usual. There is one special point that requires manual 
  intervention: Because godi_console updates itself, the user is
  warned about potential problems, and another confirmation ('o')
  is required. You will see a describing message at that point.
- Enjoy the updated installation

It is also possible to do the same from the command-line:

$ godi_console update
$ godi_console wish -rebuild
$ godi_console perform -wishes -newer
$ godi_console wish -reset

2. BOOTSTRAP PROBLEMS FOR NETBSD AND CYGWIN SOLVED

Recent versions of NetBSD (I think version 2.0), and Cygwin (from some
point in the 1.5 series of DLLs) could not be bootstrapped with the
bootstrap tarball 20041002. It turned out that the reasons were two
configuration problems. There is now a new bootstrap tarball 20050404
solving this issue. You can download it from the GODI homepage (see
below).

3. PROGRESS OF THE GODI PACKAGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

In the past months, the GODI package management system made some
progress. Besides a lot of bugfixes (e.g. the names of the Sourceforge
mirrors were updated), there is one major change. The binary package
management is now done by an O'Caml library, and no longer by the
ancient C programs coming originally from the BSD ports system.

There is almost no user-visible change, this library is designed as a
replacement with the same functions. Package builders will notice,
however, that the handling of directories changed. It is no longer
required to put @dirrm directives into the packing list files to ensure
that directories are removed when a package is deinstalled. The new way
of handling directories is to remove empty directories automatically.
This is thought to be adequate for a system like GODI that needs not to
take care of directory permissions.

The command-line version of godi_console has been extended, and it is
now possible to add and remove binary packages with it.

The real benefits of this change will be seen in the future. It is one
step in getting rid of all these C helper programs GODI currently uses.
These programs were a major source of portability problems in the past,
and it is also difficult to maintain them. Especially, this makes it
possible to port GODI to Windows.

4. WHERE TO FIND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT GODI

GODI is a source-based O'Caml distribution. It consists of a framework
that automatically builds the O'Caml core system, and additionally
installs a growing number of pre-packaged libraries. GODI is available
for O'Caml-3.07 and 3.08. It runs on Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD,
Cygwin, HP-UX, MacOS X.

Advantages of using GODI:

      * Automatic installation of new libraries: GODI knows where a
        library can be downloaded, which prerequisites are needed to
        build it, and which commands must be invoked to compile and
        install it
      * Complete package management of the installation: A library is
        installed as a package (a managed set of files), so it is
        possible to remove it later without any hassle.
      * GODI implements the necessary logic to upgrade installations:
        Because of the way O'Caml works, all dependent libraries must be
        recompiled if a library is upgraded to a newer version. GODI
        automates this process.
      * Integration with the operating system: If additional C libraries
        are needed to build an O'Caml library, and the operating system
        includes them, they will usually be automatically found and
        used. Non-standard locations can be configured (there is only
        one configuration file for the whole installation).
      * GODI has a menu-based user interface that makes it simple to use
        even for beginners.
      * GODI tries to standardize the directory layout of library
        installations, so it becomes simpler to find files of interest.

GODI currently supports 54 add-on libraries and 11 applications written
in O'Caml.

Read more on the GODI homepage: http://godi.ocaml-programming.de

-- 
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Gerd Stolpmann * Viktoriastr. 45 * 64293 Darmstadt * Germany 
gerd@gerd-stolpmann.de          http://www.gerd-stolpmann.de
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