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Equinox/p2/Publisher

< Equinox‎ | p2
Revision as of 21:14, 15 May 2009 by Irbull.eclipsesource.com (Talk | contribs) (Headless Applications)

The Publisher is the means by which deployable entities get added to repositories. It consists of an extensible set of publishing actions, applications and Ant tasks that allow users to generate p2 repositories from a number of different sources.

Headless Applications

The Publisher consists of a number of headless (no GUI) Eclipse Applications that can be used to generate metadata from a variety of sources. Examples of such applications include:

  • FeaturesAndBundles Publisher: Generates metadata from a set of features and bundles
  • Product Publisher: Generates metadata from a .product file
  • Category Publisher: Generates categories for an existing repository
  • UpdateSite Publisher: Generates metadata from an UpdateSite
  • Install Publisher: Generates metadata from an existing Eclipse install

UpdateSite Publisher Application

The UpdateSite Publisher Application (org.eclipse.equinox.p2.publisher.UpdateSitePublisher) is a headless application that is capable of generating metadata (p2 repositories) from an update site containing a site.xml, bundles and features. The application can be invoked as follows:

 java -jar <targetProductFolder>/plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_*.jar
 -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.publisher.UpdateSitePublisher
 -metadataRepository file:/<some location>/repository
 -artifactRepository file:/<some location>/repository
 -source /<location with a site.xml>
 -configs gtk.linux.x86
 -compress 
 -publishArtifacts

Features And Bundles Publisher Application

The Features and Bundles Publisher Application (org.eclipse.equinox.p2.publisher.FeaturesAndBundlesPublisher) is a headless application that is capable of generating metadata (p2 repositories) from pre-build Eclipse bundles and features. The application can be invoked as follows:

   java -jar <targetProductFolder>/plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_*.jar
   -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.publisher.FeaturesAndBundlesPublisher
   -metadataRepository file:/<some location>/repository
   -artifactRepository file:/<some location>/repository
   -source /<location with a plugin and feature directory>
   -configs gtk.linux.x86
   -compress
   -publishArtifacts

In this example, the plugins in /<location with a plugin and feature directory>/plugins and features in /<location with a plugin and feature directory>/features will be published in the file:/<some location>/repository repository. The artifacts will also be published, and the repositories (artifacts.xml and content.xml) compressed.

Product Publisher

The Product Publisher Application (org.eclipse.equinox.p2.publisher.ProductPublisher) is a headless application that is capable of generating product configuration metadata. The product publisher does not publish the bundles or features that constitute the product. The application can be invoked as follows:

   -console -consolelog -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.publisher.ProductPublisher
   -metadataRepository file:/home/irbull/Desktop/temp/mail1
   -artifactRepository file:/home/irbull/Desktop/temp/mail1
   -productFile /home/irbull/workspaces/p2/mail/mail.product
   -append
   -publishArtifacts
   -executables /home/irbull/eclipse/delta/eclipse/features/org.eclipse.equinox.executable_3.3.200.v20090426-1530-7M-Fm-FI3UouOdcoUJz-7oc
   -flavor tooling
   -configs gtk.linux.x86

Note: There are currently a few oustanding (but workable) issues with this application:

  • You must list any bundles to start on the configuration tab.
  • Any features / bundles should be specified with "Exact" versions (no qualifiers) or 0.0.0 for latest
  • The executables feature must be specified
  • Flavor must be specified (if unsure, use tooling)
  • Unchecking "Include native launchers" has no effect

Category Publisher

The Category Publisher Application (org.eclipse.equinox.p2.publisher.CategoryPublisher) is a headless application that is capable of categorizing a set of Installable Units in a given repository. The categorization is driven from a category file. The application can be invoked as follows:

   -console -consolelog -application org.eclipse.equinox.p2.publisher.CategoryPublisher
   -metadataRepository file:/<repo location>/repository
   -categoryDefinition /home/irbull/workspaces/p2/mail/category.xml
   -categoryQualifier

This application will use the categories defined in category.xml to categorize the metadata in file:/<repo location>/repository with the categories defined in category.xml.

Ant Tasks

TODO: Add information about the ANT Tasks the Publisher provides

PDE Build

TODO: Add information about how to publish repositories using PDE Build. There is also some information about the ANT tasks PDE build provides at: PDE Ant Tasks

Extensible API

Getting Involved

There are a number of ways to get involved with the development of The Publisher. In particular:

  • Experiment with and give feedback on the publisher's provisional API
  • Ensure the publisher Java Docs are accurate (and provide feedback / patches where needed)
  • Experiment with the publisher's ANT tasks and headless applications
  • Review the list of outstanding publisher bugs Open Publisher Bugs

The publisher developer discusses take place on the p2-dev list

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