usr.bin/dsynth/dsynth.1

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.\" This code is based on a concept originally developed by John R. Marino.
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.Dd January 26, 2021
.Dt DSYNTH 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm dsynth
.Nd dsynth bulk dports builder utility
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl dhvxyDSN
.Op Fl p Ar profile
.Op Fl s Ar n
.Op Fl m Ar gb
.Ar directive
.Op origins
.Nm
.Ar help
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility allows a user to build and maintain part or all of dports
locally.
.Nm
figures out the dependency topology of the dport(s) for you and
is capable of building any number of ports concurrently based
on the configuration parameters you supply.
.Pp
also detects changes made to the ports tree and rebuilds packages
and anything that depends on those packages as needed.
.Pp
.Nm
is based on an application called
.Xr synth 1
which was written by John Marino in Ada and served as the conceptual base
for this program.
.Nm
is written in C and designed to be as portable as possible given a
ports-style infrastructure.
.Pp
Our recommended build topology is with a configuration as follows:
.Bd -literal
[Global Configuration]
profile_selected= LiveSystem

[LiveSystem]
Operating_system= DragonFly
Directory_packages= /build/synth/live_packages
Directory_repository= /build/synth/live_packages/All
Directory_portsdir= /build/synth/dports
Directory_options= /build/synth/options
Directory_distfiles= /build/synth/distfiles
Directory_buildbase= /build/synth/build
Directory_logs= /build/synth/logs
Directory_ccache= disabled
Directory_system= /
Package_suffix= .txz
Number_of_builders= 8
Max_jobs_per_builder= 8
Display_with_ncurses= true
.Ed
.Pp
This places all major directories under
.Pa /build/synth .
If you want to use the same dports and the same distfiles as your base
system, you can null-mount /usr/distfiles onto /build/synth/distfiles
and /usr/dports onto /build/synth/dports with
.Pa /etc/fstab
entries as follows:
.Bd -literal
# Device              Mountpoint		FStype  Options DumpPass#
/usr/distfiles        /build/synth/distfiles	null    rw      4 4
/usr/dports           /build/synth/dports	null    rw      4 4
.Ed
.Pp
Please set the number of builders and the maximum number of jobs per
builder according to available system resources.
Remember that the total
load on the system can be as high as (builders x jobs), and at least 4x
that value in processes.
Systems are typically restricted by memory and CPU horsepower.
Start conservative and ramp up according to what your system can handle.
A good rule of thumb is to set workers to the number of CPU threads your
machine has or to 1/2 the number of gigabytes of memory your system has,
whichever is lower.
Then set the jobs per worker to no more than the
number of CPU threads your machine has.
.Pp
.Nm
has numerous features to manage machine load and swap usage to
prevent a machine from being overloaded, allowing more workers
to be configured than you might otherwise think is reasonable
(which helps a lot when building the smaller ports).
However, users running this program should be aware that very high loads
and modest swap use are still likely to develop when building a large
number of ports or when building very large ports like chromium.
If the system is not dedicated to building packages you can reduce the
impact to the rest of the system by running
.Nm
at nice +20 and also by reducing the number of workers and number of
jobs per worker somewhat.
.Pp
We recommend that a minimum of 64GB of SSD-based swap be configured,
or twice as much swap as main memory, whichever is the higher value.
.Pp
We recommend a minimum of 500GB of storage be configured in
.Pa /build
or wherever you have configured various directories.
A full set of distfiles requires at least 120GB, a full dports including
the git repo requires at least 1.5GB, and a full set of built packages
requires at least 75GB.
If using a filesystem such as HAMMER or HAMMER2
which frees space overnight, double all of those numbers.
.Pp
The actual build infrastructure uses tmpfs... memory and swap, and does
not use regular filesystem space.
.Sh OPTIONS
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl d[d...]
Run in debug mode.
If specified two or more times this will turn off
ncurses and output the primary log (00_last_results.log) to the standard
output, along with additional spew.
.It Fl h
Quickly output a synopsis of options and directives and exit.
.It Fl m Ar gb
Override the default package dependency memory target, in gigabytes.
The default is 1/2 physical memory.
The number of workers will be limited
such that the aggregate size of package dependencies installed in each
worker slot does not exceed this value.
.Pp
This handles a well-known effect where the sheer amount of data that has
to be installed in tmpfs filesystems for large ports, when multiplied by
the number of worker slots, can force excessive paging to occur and leave
preciously little memory available to actually run compiles.
Some paging
is necessary to maintain maximum CPU utilization, but excessive paging
can cause the whole machine to essentially become idle for extended
periods of time.
.It Fl p Ar profile
Override the global profile default in
.Pa /etc/dsynth/dsynth.ini ,
allowing you to trivially run whatever profile you like without having to
edit the configuration file when switching.
In addition, you can now run any number of dsynth's concurrently on the same
machine without having to use a jail, each with a different profile,
as long as the packages, repository, buildbase, and logs directories
are different.
.Pp
Note that the distfiles directory can be shared and will not conflict
or get confused with concurrent fetches.
.It Fl s Ar n
.Nm
usually slow-starts the worker slots, beginning with one slot and increasing
by one every 5 seconds until the maximum configured number of workers is
reached.
This gives
.Nm
a slower ramp that it can load manage against.
Specifying 0 disables the slow-start feature and the maximum number of
worker slots (limited by the dependency graph) will be loaded immediately.
.It Fl v
Quickly output the version and exit.
.It Fl x
.It Fl xx
Normally dsynth builds a package for any of three reasons: (1) If the contents
of the ports directory changes, (2) If anything the port depends on requires
rebuilding so to will the port be rebuilt, (3) If there is no binary package
already built for the port.
.Pp
If this option is specified, the first test is ignored.
If this option is specified twice, the first and second tests are ignored.
.It Fl y
Automatically answer 'y'es to any questions.
.It Fl D
Turn on DEVELOPER mode when building ports.
.It Fl P
Include the check-plist stage.
This is the default for the
.Cm everything
directive.
.It Fl S[S]
Turn off curses for script friendliness.
The output will be log 00 and
should be redirected to /dev/null or something similar.
If you supply the options twice, color output escapes will also be
turned off.
You may also wish to use the
.Fl y
option for scripting dsynth.
.It Fl N
Normally
.Nm
nices its sub-processes to +10.
This option disables the feature.
.El
.Sh DIRECTIVES
Generally
.Nm
is run with a directive and some directives allow a list of ports to be
specified.
This list should be space-delimited in DIR/SUBDIR format, for example:
.Ar www/chromium .
For directives with an optional ports list, your current installed set
of ports will be used if you do not specify a list.
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Cm init
Creates and initializes the
.Pa /etc/dsynth
directory if it does not exst.
This directive will complain and exit if either
.Pa /etc/dsynth
or
.Pa /usr/local/etc/dsynth
exists.
It will not create
.Pa /etc/dsynth
in this situation.
.It Cm status
This will do a dry-run of
.Cm upgrade-system
but not actually build anything.
.It Cm cleanup
This will clean up any left-over mounts from prior builds.
.Nm
attempts to clean up all processes and mounts when you interrupt
a build but doesn't always succeed.
.It Cm configure
NOT CURRENTLY IMPLEMENTED
.It Cm upgrade-system
NOT CURRENTLY IMPLEMENTED.
Incrementally build and upgrade your locally
installed packages, then upgrade your local system with them.
.It Cm prepare-system
Incrementally build and upgrade your locally installed packages, but
do not upgrade your system with them.
.It Cm rebuild-repository
Build or rebuild the database files for the configured repository.
.It Cm purge-distfiles
Delete any obsolete source distribution files.
.It Cm reset-db
Delete ports_crc.db from the build directory.
This database is used to detect changes made to the dports tree.
It will be regenerated on your next build without forcing any packages to be rebuilt.
.It Cm status-everything
This will do a dry-run of a full bulk build of everything,
but not actually build anything.
.It Cm everything
This will build the entire dports tree and then rebuild the repository
when it finishes.
.It Cm version
This is for synth compatibility.
The version of
.Nm
will be printed and the program will exit.
.It Cm help
Output a synopsis of options and directives and exit.
.It Cm status Op Ar ports
Do a dry-run with 'build' of the given list.
.It Cm build Op Ar ports
Incrementally build dports based on the given list.
When done, ask whether the repository should be rebuilt or not.
.It Cm just-build Op Ar ports
Incrementally build dports based on the given list, then
exits.
No post-build steps will be taken.
.It Cm install Op Ar ports
NOT CURRENTLY IMPLEMENTED.  'build' based on the supplied
list (or using currently installed packages), then rebuild
the repository and upgrade the system without asking any further
questions.
.It Cm force Op Ar ports
This is the same as 'build' but will delete existing packages first.
Dependencies are not deleted unless they are out of date.
.It Cm test Op Ar ports
This is the same as 'build' but sets the environment variable
.Ev DEVELOPER
to
.Sq yes
and pre-deletes specified packages.
Dependencies are not deleted unless they are out of date.
.It Cm debug Op Ar ports
This is the same as 'build' but leaves the chroot mounts intact
upon completion.
.It Cm monitor Op Ar datfile
Monitors a running dsynth instance.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width ".It Pa <fs>/abc/defghi/<name>" -compact
.It Pa /etc/dsynth/dsynth.ini
The primary configuration file.
If not found,
.Nm
will also look in
.Pa /usr/local/etc/dsynth/dsynth.ini .
.Pp
.It Pa /etc/dsynth/LiveSystem-make.conf
Typically contains the environment variables that will be set in
the workers.
.Nm
firewalls the environment it is run under from the environment it
provides to the workers.
.Pp
.It Pa /build/synth/build
Recommended setting for
.Va Directory_buildbase ,
contains the build infrastructure... typically a template, mirrored
system directories, and mount points for all the worker slots.
The template will be [re]generated if 'pkg' needs to be built or
if the
.Pa .template.good
file in this directory is deleted.
.Pp
.It Pa /build/synth/distfiles
Recommended setting for
.Va Directory_distfiles ,
ports to a directory into which
.Nm
will download any source distribution files required for building.
.Pp
.It Pa /build/synth/dports
Recommended setting for
.Va Directory_portsdir ,
points to a checked out dports repo.
Note that
.Nm
does not automatically 'git pull' or otherwise synchronize the dports repo,
you must do that yourself prior to starting a build.
.Pp
.It Pa /build/synth/live_packages
Recommended setting for
.Va Directory_packages ,
points to a directory which will contain the completed application
packages.
.Pp
.It Pa /build/synth/logs
Recommended setting for
.Va Directory_logs ,
all log files will be placed in this directory.
Special management logfiles begin with the numeral '0' for easily
location.
The logfiles for ports while and after building are stored in the
form subdir____portname.log, with three underscores.
.Pp
.It Pa /build/synth/options
Recommended setting for
.Va Directory_options ,
where options overrides for specific ports may be located.
.Pp
.It Pa /
Recommended setting for
.Va Directory_system ,
which
.Nm
uses as a basis for creating the jails or chroots in each worker slot
during building.
No part of the system root is ever NULL-mounted read-write... it is always
NULL-mounted read-only.
Some elements from the system base will be mirrored in the build-base
as an optimization.
.Pp
Note that the packages directory and the distfiles directory is mounted
read-write in jails or chroots.
All other r/w filesystems in the workers are
.Xr tmpfs 5
based filesystems and will be created and torn-down for each port.
.Pp
.It Pa .txz
.It Pa .tgz
.It Pa .tar
.It Pa .tbz
.It Pa .tzst
The recommended setting for
.Va Package_suffix
is either
.Pa .txz
or
.Pa .tgz .
Use
.Pa .txz
for better compression at the cost of somewhat slower bulk builds due
to the time overhead for compression and decompression, or
use
.Pa .tgz
for modest compression and very fast compression and decompression.
Due to the way the builder works, package dependencies are fresly
installed into the chroot slot for each package being built, so
decompression time matters.
.El
.Sh EXIT STATUS
.Ex -std
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr synth 1 ,
.Xr dports 7
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
utility first appeared in
.Dx 5.7 .
.Sh AUTHORS
.An Matthew Dillon Aq Mt dillon@backplane.com