RE: [RFC PATCH] Remove isar-apt and the corresponding lock

["Schmidt, Adriaan" <adriaan.schmidt@siemens.com>]

Baurzhan Ismagulov, Freitag, 21. Oktober 2022 12:15:
> On Wed, Oct 19, 2022 at 12:47:45PM +0200, Adriaan Schmidt wrote:
> > In addition to removing the lock, this also gives us better control
> > over what goes into a package build, and eliminates effects due to
> "accidental"
> > packages in isar-apt.
> 
> We are aware of this issue. isar-apt is the "Debian way" deliverable from an
> Isar-based project, containing the locally-built packages. To implement
> proper
> Debian Build-Depends functionality (without duplicating DEPENDS on bitbake
> level), we need the respective introspection of which packages come from
> Debian
> and which ones are built locally. For this, we need to enhance base-apt and
> isar-apt (and maybe bitbake or some new class) to enable such introspection.
> [1] and [2] are the beginning of this work (they don't cover all of it
> today).

I don't see a conflict here. I'd say the .deb introspection and more advanced
detection of dependencies is an independent issue.

> We've looked at the locking in scope of [2]. We know that isar-apt critical
> section is too coarse and can be greatly narrowed down. If this is the pain
> point, we could prioritize that specific issue and provide the respective
> improvement. We'll check your patch in more detail, but I'm against removing
> isar-apt altogether.

I see the value of isar-apt as a deliverable of a build. But I don't think
it's the best tool to transfer packages during build. To transfer between
recipes of the same build, this RFC could be an alternative. And to transfer
to other builds (re-use packages to speed things up), we have sstate. 
I had a look at [2], and one problem I see is that packages are only identified
by their filename and version, and this does not lead to a rebuild when
any of the inputs (sources, recipe) change.

If we remove isar-apt as a tool to transfer packages during build, I would
definitely bring it back, possibly as a feature of the rootfs or image class
(e.g., bitbake my-image -c export-apt-repo).

Adriaan

> 1. base-apt enhancement: https://patchwork.isar-
> build.org/project/isar/patch/20220325103226.27033-1-ubely@ilbers.de/
> 2. isar-apt enhancement: https://patchwork.isar-
> build.org/project/isar/patch/20220613070759.16949-1-ubely@ilbers.de/
> 
> With kind regards,
> Baurzhan
>