89 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
89 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
# hpk
|
|
Contents
|
|
========
|
|
* [Introduction](#introduction)
|
|
* [Package Format](#package_format)
|
|
* [Design](#design)
|
|
* [Status](#status)
|
|
|
|
## Introduction
|
|
*Hpk* (HitchHiker Package Keeper) is a package manager designed for
|
|
[HitchHiker Linux](https://hitchhiker-linux.org) and written in modern and safe
|
|
Rust. It has been designed from the ground up to have a flexible and easy to
|
|
understand interface, have high performance and have a logical scope in regards
|
|
to managing the files on your system.
|
|
|
|
## Package Format
|
|
Packages to be managed by *hpk* are [zstd](https://facebook.github.io/zstd/)
|
|
compressed Unix tar archives. The archive is intended to be extracted directly
|
|
onto the target filesystem and so does not have a root directory. Looking inside
|
|
a package archive will show a tree similar to the following.
|
|
```Sh
|
|
.
|
|
├── package.ron
|
|
├── etc
|
|
│ └── hpk
|
|
│ └── conf.ron.new
|
|
└── usr
|
|
├── bin
|
|
│ └── hpk
|
|
└── share
|
|
├── doc
|
|
│ └── hpk
|
|
│ ├── package-format.md
|
|
│ └── README.md
|
|
└── man
|
|
├── man1
|
|
│ └── hpk.1
|
|
└── man8
|
|
└── hpk-package-format.8
|
|
|
|
11 directories, 7 files
|
|
```
|
|
The file *package.ron* contains all required metadata about the package in
|
|
[ron](https://github.com/ron-rs/ron) format (Rusty Object Notation). Config files
|
|
are installed with the extension *.new* if the file already exists, and are renamed
|
|
with that extension removed if the package is being installed for the first time
|
|
and no config file exists. This is in accordance with the KISS principle, and
|
|
configuration is left to the system administrator rather than the package manager
|
|
attempting to do so itself. A more thorough description can be read at
|
|
[package-format.md](package-format.md).
|
|
|
|
## Design
|
|
Every attempt is made to make the package manager performant, including things
|
|
such as:
|
|
- parallel processing of files during package creation
|
|
- file data is read into memory once during package creation. That data is
|
|
re-used for tasks such as generating checksums and tar file nodes, as opposed
|
|
to calling external programs which would have to open each file multiple times.
|
|
- similarly, since hpk imlements reading and writing tar archives, during extraction
|
|
each file is read into memory, the data is checked against the recorded checksum,
|
|
and then written to disk rather then requiring separate steps
|
|
|
|
All of the main data structures and functionality are implemented as a library,
|
|
allowing for creation of alternate frontends to be written in the future. The vast
|
|
majority of the data is exported rather than having secret, private API's that
|
|
are not exposed in the library.
|
|
|
|
While the hpk source distribution will only include a command line client, provision
|
|
is made for some nice modern features for a future graphical client. As an example,
|
|
the *package.ron* file has an optional field to link to an
|
|
[AppStream](https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Distributions/AppStream/) metadata
|
|
file, allowing for nice things such as screenshots in a mode *App Store* like
|
|
presentation.
|
|
|
|
## Status
|
|
Currently, *hpk* is in an early stage of development and is not ready for use.
|
|
Perusing the cli options will show much of the intended functionality.
|
|
|
|
### What's already working
|
|
- [x] initializing a package specs file on the command line
|
|
- [x] creating a package archive from a directory of files
|
|
- [ ] installing local packages
|
|
- [ ] installing remote packages
|
|
- [ ] resolving dependencies
|
|
- [ ] removing packages
|
|
- [ ] upgrading to newer package versions
|
|
- [ ] searching repositories for available packages
|
|
- [ ] listing installed packages
|