InternetWide Architecture Component Builders

Or, if you like, ARPA2 Root File System Makers.

This is a set of scripts that we propose to build root file systems for ARPA2 components. They should be seen as guidance towards a personalised hosting environment, rather than as complete solutions.

The directories in this project each represent a component as we envision it in the InternetWide Architecture which allows maximum control of online identity and use of it throughout the Internet through realm crossover techniques.

Subsystems for Hosting Providers

The various ARPA2 subsystems are designed to integrate into an implementation of the InternetWide Architecture, without blocking alternative implementations. It's all about protocols, not software. We do suggest a split of hosting providers into domain identity providers and plugin service providers, and allow each to customise and specialise on a market segment. There is nothing stopping hosting providers from taking on both roles, but we always advise customers to insist on an open exchange between any identity provider and any hosting provider, for maximum flexibility.

Aside from hosting providers, customers may want to host their own components for some or all parts of a hosting role. This is possible thanks to the dynamic backbone built on authenticated AMQP. Again, we advise customers to choose only hosting providers who open up their backend for such individual overrides.

Components are Root File Systems

This project builds standalone components that were identified in the InternetWide Architecture as tactical components to have, and which should interconnect to form the whole. Each component might run on bare metal, as an open container instance, in a BSD jail, on your Raspberry Pi at home, from a CDROM or PXE network boot and so on. In short, it needs to build as flexibly as possible.

All these technologies seem to converge on the same thing, namely the use of a root file system and some added information on what resources may peek through its perimeter. This general form is supported in this project through subdirectories that each build a component as a standalone root file system.

The individual components welcome additional contributions of configuration files and so on that make them work on one of the many possible runtime environments. Please consider every such extension as a guiding example, rather than a ready-made script. We aim for a good level of documentation in each such script, to guide you through the process of running it in your personalised setup.

Quickstart on Linux

Simplest start: You can have a "mkhere" setup bootstrapped by the "mkroot" system:

git clone https://github.com/arpa2/mkroot
mkdir build4debian
cd build4debian
cmake -D BOOTSTRAP_DEBIAN_MKHERE=ON \
      -D BOOTSTRAP_MKHERE_MENU="bootstrap/debian/stable/rootfs/mkhere" \
      ../mkroot
make
ls -d */*/rootfs

Bring your own: If you already have a build OS with /mkhere installed in its root dir $BUILDROOT, you might use

git clone https://github.com/arpa2/mkroot
mkdir build4linux
cd build4linux
ln -s "$BUILDROOT/mkhere" mkhere
cmake ../mkroot
make
ls -d */*/rootfs

General Usage

When not specified otherwise in the individual component directories, the following build mechanism is assumed.

1. There is a need for a build root file system. This can be a simple directory into which an operating system is installed, like with debootstrap, it may be a local or NFS mount from a target environment. It may be using a target operating system for the system that will run the components to be built with it. Below, we refer to this directory as buildroot.

2. A checkout or clone of the mkhere project arpa2/mkhere must be stored in a directory by the name mkhere under the buildroot. This directory will be accessed by component build scripts, and after a chroot to the buildroot the various bits of software can be built in that file system. In certain special environments, we may rely on qemu or wine or similar for running the build.

3. Create a build target directory, anywhere you like. You should not do this anywhere in your mkhere project and not in any of the source directories of the mkroot project, but you might create a subdirectory under the mkroot project if you like. This directory will contain any derived works, so we retain a pristine mkroot source tree. This implies that you might repeat this step for different types of build.

4. Make a symbolic link from the mkhere subdirectory of the buildroot to your build target directory of this mkroot project directory. The individual build scripts for components will reference that directory.

5. Now setup the build target with cmake "$BUILDDIR" where you replace $BUILDDIR with the build directory. If instead you would like to configure special options first, you may instead run ccmake "$BUILDDIR" first. If you do not make such a choice, you are building open container bundles.

6. You should now have a build system suited for your local setup. The cmake system used a generator to produce build code that is normal to you; on POSIX systems, you would expect to have a Makefile so you can use make to build components by name.

7. Use the build system to create the components you like. The components bear the names of the subdirectories from this project. After running your local component build command (for instance make arpa2dns for the arpa2dns component if cmake generated for the make system) you should find the result in a subdirectory rootfs under the component's target build subdirectory (in the given example, arpa2dns/rootfs).

8. For deployment, you may find initial contributed files for some components and for some runtimes in the component-named subdirectories under contrib, named by the contributing element and a possible variant (like arpa2dns/config.json for an arpa2dns component for the OCI_bundle runtime kind).

Flavouring what you Cook

There are several places where you can override defaults and put in your own ideas. Surprises may be lurking anywhere, but we welcome your pull requests to immortalise and share your clever solutions.

• You can setup your favourite build root, using your favourite operating system and version. There are basic requirements that you must meet, as documented in the mkhere project, but you can easily write your own wrapper scripts for gcc and such tools. We do this too when we want to build for Windows and need wine to wrap gcc and other commands.

• Instead of our mkhere repository, you might have your own variations, and/or you might edit or patch what we supply. As long as you setup the mkhere link in the build target directory to point to your version, the mkroot scripts will follow your wishes.

• Packages built using mkhere can have variants and flavours, where variants influence package configuration and variants influence what from a package is used. You can set these with ccmake before cmake is run, as described above; look for component_VARIANT and component_FLAVOUR variables.

• Components can be targeted at a diversity of runtime kinds, the current default being none for nothing to be added, but contributions for others such as OCI_bundle may be added at any time. You can configure what each component's target is by using ccmake before cmake is run, as described above; look for component_RUNKIND variables.

• Instead of our mkroot respository, you might have your own variations, and/or you might edit or patch what we supply. For instance, you might have a variation on the contrib scripts supplied next to the rootfs for a component. If it adds new facilitation, please make it general, add documentation and use CMake's generic path names so we may configure them specifically for the build target directory, and then send us a pull request!