APT repository

Revision as of 11:01, 19 November 2010

Wikimedia maintains its own APT repository, under http://apt.wikimedia.org/wikimedia which lives on brewster. This repository contains Debian/Ubuntu packages modified for use by Wikimedia, and Wikimedia specific native packages, that don't exist elsewhere.

Using

To use this repository, the following lines need to be present in /etc/apt/sources.list:

## Wikimedia APT repository
deb http://apt.wikimedia.org/wikimedia hardy-wikimedia main universe
deb-src http://apt.wikimedia.org/wikimedia hardy-wikimedia main universe

Additionally, to make sure that the system prefers packages from this repository, and not packages from the origin distributions even if they have a higher version number, this APT source is "pinned" with a higher priority in /etc/apt/preferences:

Package: *
Pin: release o=Wikimedia
Pin-Priority: 1001

The Wikimedia repository is signed with the Wikimedia Archive Automatic Signing Key <root@wikimedia.org>. This public key must be installed in APT's GPG keyring for it to verify packages without nagging about it. This can be accomplished by installing the wikimedia-keyring package.

An automated installation of a Wikimedia server should take care of all of the above.

Updating the repository

To add packages to the Wikimedia repository, so they can be deployed on the servers, take the following steps.

Commit the debian/ directory of the package to Subversion, under:

svn.wikimedia.org/svnroot/mediawiki/trunk/debs/package basename/debian/

Make sure that the package is built on the relevant architectures (these days, only amd64).

Upload all the package files, including the .changes file, to directory /srv/wikimedia/incoming/ on brewster.

Then, on brewster, run:

# reprepro -C component-name include wikimedia-distribution-name path-to-.changes-file

For example:

# reprepro -C main include hardy-wikimedia php5-apc_3.1.3p1-1wm1_amd64.changes

For component, use the following as a guide:

main 

for Wikimedia native packages, as well as Debian/Ubuntu packages that have had source-modifications

universe 

for existing Debian/Ubuntu packages that just have been recompiled/backported for the given distribution.

For distribution, use the distribution that the package has been compiled for, and under. Usually, any given compiled package should be for one distribution only, e.g. hardy-wikimedia OR lucid-wikimedia. Only in special circumstances a given package can be used under multiple distribution versions, .e.g. if the package contains only scripts (no binaries). Only do this if you've tested it and are sure this is working. In this case, include the package in the oldest distribution version, and then copy the package references using reprepro copy.

The package should now be available for deployment/installation on the target hosts, after they have done a apt-get update, of course.

Setup of a Wikimedia repository for a new Ubuntu release

Edit /srv/wikimedia/conf/distributions, adding a block for the new distribution that matches the previous ones. For example:

Origin: Wikimedia
Label: Wikimedia
Suite: lucid-wikimedia
Codename: lucid-wikimedia
Version: 10.04
Architectures: source amd64
Components: main universe
UDebComponents: main
Description: Wikimedia specific packages for Ubuntu Lucid
SignWith: default
DebOverride: deb-override

New packages can now be imported for this distribution as normally.

See also

• pbuilder for building packages for different distribution versions and architectures