[ckan-dev] More package install vs source install consolidation

Tue May 21 05:21:58 UTC 2013

On 20 May 2013 16:41, Sean Hammond <sean.hammond at okfn.org> wrote:

> I think people are doing package installs, and then getting confused
> when they go onto later pages in the docs that mention eg. paster
> commands that are designed to work with source install and assume
> knowledge that's taught in the source install instructions but not in
> the package install (such as how to activate your virtualenv before
> running a paster command).
>
> Example: https://github.com/okfn/ckan/issues/908
>
> There are at least 3 differences between package and source installs
> that are potentially causing problems:
>
> 1. Package installs have the `ckan` command, source installs don't
>
> 2. Package install virtualenvs have global site packages on, source
> install ones don't
>
> 3. Separate package and source install docs, for example the source
> install ones teach you about activating your virtualenv and changing to
> the ckan dir before using a paster command, the package install ones
> don't
>
> Suggestions for each:
>
> 1. For now we should be telling everyone to use `paster`, not `ckan`,
> because `ckan` only works if you did a package install. So we need to
> tell people to activate their virtualenv and change to the ckan dir
> before running `paster` (or point them to the docs that explain this)
>
> The `ckan` command is simpler to use so maybe it should replace `paster`
> in future but it needs to be made available to source installs as well
> and the docs need to be updated to use it wherever they currently mention
> paster.
>
> I'm not sure how the `ckan` command can work when there are multiple
> CKAN codebases installed on one server.
>
> @nibel Do you want to look into this? (Making the `ckan` command work
> with source installs and multiple CKANs on a server)
>

Yeah, I'll be looking into this when I'm looking at consolidating
packaging. Ideally, I want to ship the ckan binary with the source install
and symblink that for the package.

>
> 2. I remember discussing it but I can't remember why we turned on global
> site packages for the package install.
>
> This potentially creates differences between source installs and package
> installs such as whether commands like `sudo apt-get install foo` or
> `sudo pip install foo` will have an effect on CKAN (eg. getting rid of
> error messages etc) or not.
>
> This is a problem for docs and support imho, people will post solutions
> that worked for them but that won't work for people who have a source
> install.
>
> If at all possible, I'd like to turn off global site packages on the
> package install's virtualenv, to make it the same as the source
> install's one.
>
> @nigel Another thing for you to look into?
>

This was done because we were hoping to create architecture agnostic
packages, but we later learned that wouldn't be possible the way we're
doing things. This should be turned off in 2.1.

>
> 3. I'm meaning to look into consolidating the different paths through
> the docs for package install and source install as much as possible,
> both to reduce duplication and so that people don't come out the other
> end with different levels of knowledge about CKAN depending on what kind
> of install they did.
>
> This has long been a problem with the package install -- we get way more
> support emails from people who did package installs, who then go onto
> make mistakes that they're helpless to understand because they don't
> know about things like virtualenv. And the docs everywhere basically
> assume you did a source install and have all that knowledge.
>
> There's lots of other docs stuff to do so I'm not sure how soon I'll be
> able to look at this.
>

This is why we need to be shipping a stable package for every release. That
way people don't need to know the details to run CKAN. We could have a
section separately to explain what the package installs and where it
installs.

>
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