Packages
A package is the unit of installation on a Fuchsia system.
Anatomy
To be added...
Working with packages
The majority of these instructions rely on the pm tool, which is available
in //tools.
This document describes the various steps to build and install a package:
For more details about each step, see pm's help messages.
Build a package {#build-package}
To build a package:
- Create the package ID file:
Note: $PACKAGE_DIR is a staging directory where the package
is built.
This generates the package ID file implicitly as
$PACKAGE_DIR/meta/package. Set $PACKAGE_ID_FILE accordingly
for use in subsequent steps:
$PACKAGE_ID_FILE will contain the following data:
-
Create the manifest file,
$MANIFEST_FILE, that provides the path to the package ID file. Each line of a manifest file maps a single file that is contained in the package and is in the form ofdestination=sourcewhere: -
destinationis the path to the file in the final package sourceis the path to the file on the host machine
The manifest file must include at least one line for the package ID file like this:
- Generate the package metadata archive:
This creates the metadata archive at $PACKAGE_DIR/meta.far.
- Create the package archive
$PACKAGE_ARCHIVE:
This command creates the package archive implicitly as
$PACKAGE_DIR/$PACKAGE_NAME-0.far. Set $PACKAGE_ARCHIVE accordingly
for use in subsequent steps:
If the contents of the package change, you need to re-run the
pm -o $PACKAGE_DIR -m $MANIFEST_FILE archive command.
You have successfully built a package. You are now ready to publish the package.
Publish a package {#publish-package}
To publish a package:
- Initialize a directory,
$REPO, that serves as a packages repository:
This creates a directory structure named $REPO that is ready for
publishing packages.
- Publish packages to the repository
$REPO:
pm publish parses $PACKAGE_ARCHIVE and publishes the package in the
provided $REPO directory. If you run this command multiple times with
different package archives, pm publish publishes the packages to the same
repository. New versions of a same package can be published using the same
command.
You have successfully published a package. You are now ready to install a package.
Install a package {#install-package}
To install a package:
- Start the package server:
By default, this starts an amber server on the host machine at port 8083.
- (On the target device) Add the new repository as an update source with
pkgctl:
The option -f 1 must be set if pm is serving a component v1 config.json
configuration file. (This is currently the case, but will change to serving
component v2 configuration files in the future. Once this change has
happened, the -f 1 can be omitted.)
Providing a short name for the repository using -n $REPO is optional, but
helpful. If this short name is not provided, pkgctl will derive it from
the provided config URL.
- Get the package:
If the component is not already present on the system, pkgctl downloads the
package and places the blobs in the blobfs in the process of resolving. If
the package already exists, the updates will be downloaded.
You have successfully installed or updated the package. You are now ready to run a component from the installed package.
Run a component from an installed package {#run-component}
To run a component published in a package:
- (On the target device) Run:
Note: $COMPONENT_URI is in this form
fuchsia-pkg://${REPO}/${PACKAGE_NAME}#meta/<component name>.cmx.
You have successfully run a component from the installed package.