wanna-build & Co. overview
		      --------------------------


wanna-build is an automatic distributed build system intended to
recompile Debian binary packages from the Debian source.  This is an
attempt to give an overview of the system.

Quinn Diff -----          -------> Build Daemon <-------> Adminstrator
                \        /              ^       
                 \      /                \-------------
                  |    |                               \
                  V    V                               V
               Wanna Build                          sbuild <--------- Andrea
                  ^    ^                               ^
                  |    |                              /
                 /      \                            /
                /        \                          /
Packages -------          -------> Human <----------

The 8 components in more detail:

(1) Quinn Diff

This is the program used to determine which packages need recompiled;
it's optional and anything which produces the same output could be
used.

The quinn diff program can either be run on the same machine as
wanna-build or on any other machine, or one can use the cannonical
quinn site (http://quinn-diff.nocrew.org/).

(2) Packages

This is just the Packages file from an ftp site (preferablly all build
daemons should use the same ftp mirror as wanna-build does);
wanna-build uses the information in it to determine which packages
have been installed (after they've been `uploaded'), which packages
can now be built (after they've been put on `dep-wait').

(3) Wanna Build

The heart of the build system: it's a database of packages which need
rebuilt.  The packages can be in several states (e.g. `needs-build',
`failed', `dep-wait' etc.).  The database does full locking, so as
long as build daemons and humans all register what they want to build
via wanna-build, there'll be no duplication of work.

(4) Build Daemon

The build daemon can be used on a permanently connected machine to
ensure packages are being compiled all day, every day.  It gets a
lists of packages to build from the wanna-build database and builds
them with sbuild.  The logs of the build are then sent to the human
adminstrator.

(5) Adminstrator

Each build daemon must have a human adminstrator who looks at each
build logs and sends a response.  The response can be a signed
.changes file, in which case the build daemon will upload the package,
or it can be a `fail' response along with a reason, in which case the
build daemon will notify the wanna-build database about the packages'
change of state.

(6) Sbuild

This is the script used to build Debian source packages; it's similar
to dbuild or debbuild, but unlike either of those it knows about
source dependencies.

(7) Andrea

Andrea is a script which auto-generates a subset of source
dependencies from a Packages file.  It works by making guesses based
on the Dependencies of the packages for i386; e.g. any package which
Depends: on zlib1g is likely to source-depend on zlib1g-dev.  The
output of andrea is merged with a set of manual source dependencies to
form the source dependencies list used by sbuild.

(8) Humans

Humans can compile and upload packages without duplication of work iff
they register their intent with wanna-build.  Humans are recommended
to use sbuild or something similar, but there's nothing that requires
them to.

For more detail see the man pages and the README and README.mail file
in /usr/doc/wanna-build/.

-- 
James Troup <james@nocrew.org>, Bradford, UK
Sat, 21 Nov 1998 13:52:00 +0000