[racket] Planet2 questions

That sounds all good to me! Thanks!


On Thu, May 2, 2013 at 3:29 PM, Matthew Flatt <mflatt at cs.utah.edu> wrote:

> [Jay will have to correct me if I have any part of this wrong...]
>
> At Thu, 2 May 2013 11:31:09 +0200, Laurent wrote:
> > Say I want to use a package, registered on the PLaneT catalog as X.
> > First I do `raco pkg install X`.
>
> Yes.
>
> > In my Racket files, I simply use `(require X)'.
>
> Assuming that package `X' supplies a collection `X', yes.
>
> Those don't have to be the same `X', although a package `X' will often
> supply a collection `X' that has a "main.rkt" module. I point this out
> to emphasize that modules refer to collection and library names --- not
> to package names --- even though packages supply collections and
> libraries.
>
>
> > From time to time, the X devs implement a new feature, or fix some bugs,
> > and my copy of X gets updated automatically (right?).
>
> No. You only get an update when you explicitly run `raco pkg update' or
> something equivalent (such as using DrRacket's GUI package manager).
>
>
> > Now say that one of the X devs makes a mistake and commits a fatal bug,
> > which will be seen and resolved only a week from now for whatever reason.
> > My copy gets updated, and my Racket files relying on X don't work
> anymore.
> > How can I ensure that my files still work as they were working yesterday,
> > without needing interaction with the X devs?
>
> Even with explicit updates, you might end up with a bad version.
>
> In that case, one option is to uninstall the package in install a
> replacement through an explicit "package source", instead of using a
> package name. That is, instead of
>
>  raco pkg install X
>
> which uses a catalog to resolve `X', you could say something like
>
>  raco pkg install X.tgz
>
> which just uses the given archive (which might have been downloaded as
> a specific commit tarball form GitHub) as `X' with no interaction from
> the catalog. A package installed this way is not subject to updating
> via `raco pkg update'.
>
>
> As an aside, the `raco pkg update' action is not restricted to packages
> installed by package name; it also works with GutHub sources. If you
> install via
>
>  raco pkg install github://github.com/U/X/master
>
> then `raco pkg update' fetches the HEAD commit from GitHub. Again, that
> install or update doesn't interact with the catalog. But it doesn't also
> help if the repository's HEAD commit is buggy.
>
>
> In general, you don't ever have to use a package name. (This is why
> it's important that modules refer to collections and libraries, not
> package names.) You can always work with a more direct specification of
> a package implementation and ignore the catalog.
>
>
> > If I understand properly, I need to create my own catalog that says that
> > the package named X should not actually be looked up on PLaneT, but
> > locally.
>
> Yes, a catalog is one option for managing packages. It's a fairly
> heavyweight option, though, that becomes convenient if you need to
> manage many packages explicitly.
>
> > (Btw, is there a catalog hierarchy, so that if a package name is
> > not found in one catalog, it can be checked in another, e.g., on PLaneT?)
>
> Yes, `raco pkg' is configured with a sequence of catalogs, which it
> tries in order.
>
>
> > In this catalog, I associate the url with the last commit of X that
> worked
> > with the package name X.
> > Then I configure the new catalog, which probably updates my
> implementation
> > of X, and thus rolls back to the working version.
>
> Right --- you can do that with a catalog. It's simpler, though, to just
> specify an implementation of the package directly, as above, during the
> buggy period.
>
>
> > A week later, the X devs apologize and tell me that a new version with a
> > bug fix is released.
> > Then I can remove my local catalog, reconfigure the package system so
> that
> > it uses PLaneT instead of my local file, and normally my X implementation
> > should be updated with the bug fix.
> >
> > Is this correct?
>
> Yes, if you go the catalog route.
>
> If you installed from source instead of working with an extra catalog,
> you can just uninstall the package and then re-install using the
> package name instead of an explicit source. Doing so gets you the
> current revision according to the catalog, and it makes the package a
> candidate for `raco pkg update' again in the future.
>
>
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