[Libosinfo] [osinfo-db-tools 0/2] Start new osinfo-db-tools package

[Daniel P. Berrange]

On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 04:24:52PM +0100, Zeeshan Ali (Khattak) wrote:
> Hi Daniel,
> 
> On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 12:56 PM, Daniel P. Berrange
> <berrange at redhat.com> wrote:
> > As mentioned previously we need to split off the database
> > from the main libosinfo library. In order todo so, we need
> > some tools to manage the database. One of those is the
> > pre-existing osinfo-db-validate command, but in future
> > it will be joined by osinfo-db-import & osinfo-db-export
> > to let admins import/export tar.gz or zip (TBD) archives
> > of the database independantly of the libosinfo library
> > releases.
> >
> > The new repository is at:
> >
> >    https://gitlab.com/libosinfo/osinfo-db-tools
> 
> I understand and agree that we need a separate repo/package for db but
> why a separate repo for tools? Why can't this be part of -db itself or
> kept as part of libosinfo even?

The actual 'osinfo-db' package should be 100% data - we don't want to
have any shipped code in it at all. Beyond that the general point is
to decouple the concept of libosinfo the API, from osinfo the database,
to better serve projects which do not wish to use libosinfo the API.

As part of this decoupling there's a clear need for some tools to
manage the deployment and distribution of the database, irrespective
of whether you are installing / using the libosinfo API. So the intent
is that 'osinfo-db-tools' provides the home for those tools that are
just focusing on managing the database deployment/distribution, and
are something everyone can depend on using.

Now, we could have the DB tools as part of libosinfo GIT and just
package them in a separate RPM, but that introduces a mutual
dependancy between osinfo-db & libosinfo. You need to tools to
deploy the osinfo-db content, but libosinfo in turn wants the DB.

Further there's no real compelling benefit to having them in the
same repository - the anticipated osinfo-db-* tools won't share
any code with the rest of the osinfo programs, since they are not
based around use of the libosinfo API - they merely use glib and
other related 3rd party libraries.

So thing of this as providing distinct layers of the stack


 +-----------+ +------------+  +-------+ +--------------+
 | openstack | | libguestfs |  | Boxes | | virt-manager |
 +-----------+ +------------+  +-------+ +--------------+
     |             |              |       |
     v             v              v       v
   +-----------------+         +-----------+
   |    osinfo-db    |<--------| libosinfo |
   +-----------------+         +-----------+
           |
	   v
   +-----------------+
   | osinfo-db-tools |
   +-----------------+

Regards,
Daniel
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