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support multiple products build on top of the NetBeans platform.">
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<h1>Installation Structure</h1>
<B>$Revision: 1.2 $</B>
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<B>Changes:</B> available in
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<h3>Abstract:</H3>
NetBeans installation structure shall
smoothly fit into host operating system (the correct packaging) and shall
support multiple products that are build on top of NetBeans platform and provide
sufficient framework for compatible development of every product part. This document
summaries the requirements and describes sample ways to achieve them. After reading
it you should understand why the installation structure of NetBeans 4.x looks the
way it looks and also realize what is the best structure and packaging
for your NetBeans platform based product.
<P>
<HR>
<h1>Requirements</H1>
<OL>
<LI><a name="1bit">There is more <em>products</em> based on NetBeans</a>
(NetBeans IDE, S1S Enterprise Product, S1S Mobile Product, NetAct,
<a href="http://mc4j.sourceforge.net/">mc4j</a>, etc).
That means more separate installations. But the installations shall
not duplicate any files, instead they shall share common files
between themselves as well as other components in the system.
<P>
<em>This means that we shall use system delivered <code>xerces</CODE>,
<code>javahelp</CODE> and that there should be just one
<code>core.jar</code> and other NetBeans components installed.</em>
<P>
<LI><a name="layout">The layout of files shall match OS conventions</a>.
So bin shall contain just binaries, the files modifiable by system
administrator shall be in /etc directory, etc. See issue
<a href="https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=32080">32080</a>.
<P>
<LI><a name="reloc">Support for relocatable installations</a>.
<em>One shall be able to install the package on server and mount it
on client machines (usually to different location)</EM>. That means the
installation cannot contain hardcoded fully qualified paths.
<P>
<LI><a name="compat">Handle incompatible versions</a>.
Evolution of any part of the product cannot hurt compatibility
expectations of other parts. When a new version of NetBeans IDE Product
is installed, other products like Mobile Product has to continue
to work.
<P>
<LI><a name="au">Relation to AutoUpdate</a>.
Different installation methods (RPM packages, AutoUpdate) shall not clash.
<P>
</OL>
<HR>
<h1>Content</H1>
<OL>
<LI> <a href="#supp">Supported Installation Scenarios</a>
<LI> <a href="#logical">Target systems and Logical Layout</a>
<LI> <a href="#launcher">Generic Launcher</a>
<LI> <a href="#versioning">Versioning of Clusters</a>
<LI> <a href="#real">Real Layouts</a>
<LI> <a href="#user">User Directory Layout</a>
<LI> <a href="#influence">Influence on other parts of the system</a>
</OL>
<H1><a name="supp">Supported Installation Scenarios</a></H1>
There is a few different, disjoint, ways how NetBeans or any other product based
on NetBeans can be installed:
<OL>
<a name="installation-scenario-unix" ></a>
<LI> <b>(Recommended for most Unix users)</b> Install the appropriate packages
from your favorite update channel or downloaded from netbeans.org or
shipped to you on CD or whatever, in RPM format or similar. Run. If
updated packages become available, install them as you would any other
software on your operating system. If you like, get extra packages
from an "optional" set of less-frequently-used packages. All modules
included in the NetBeans Product you are running are enabled. (They had
better not do work on startup or suck up RAM or clutter the UI. If
they do, they are not product quality.)
<P>
<a name="installation-scenario-webstart" ></a>
<LI> <b>(Recommended for casual Windows users, and curious but noncommittal
Unix users)</b> Go to netbeans.org and click "Launch NetBeans in Web
Start". Have fun (this is under development). A big enterprise might also put a custom
configuration on their intranet (available
at <a href="http://installer.netbeans.org/docs/jnlpInstaller.html">installer pages</a>).
<P>
<a name="installation-scenario-windows" ></a>
<LI> <b>(Recommended for most Windows users, some power Unix users, and NB
developers)</b> Download the ZIP (or .tar.gz or .tar.bz2 or perhaps .exe
installer) of NetBeans. Unpack and run. If you want to turn some
modules on or off, or get some new modules, or uninstall some modules,
or stick some modules in your user directory so you can try them
without making changes to your installation, etc., select Tools ->
Update Center and go for it.
</OL>
Each of this scenarios is targeted to a different set of users and provides some
behaviour that other lacks (usage of native package manager, ability to launch
from web browser, connection to autoupdate). Not all functionality is
available in every scenario, there are things that we explicitly do not want to
support:
<UL>
<LI>Autoupdate and native packaging has to stay separated. It is not
possible for autoupdate to modify or upgrade packages that have been
installed by native packager. Both methods can coexist
under the assumption that they both update completely different
files/directories.
<P>
<LI>Any user-mode module management when using Web Start. If you click
on the .jnlp file, you get some enabled modules; take it or leave it.
If you want a different config, set one up - there should be tools
available for power users and sys admins to easily create customized
NB configurations for JNLP.
<P>
<LI>Explicit module management (Tools -> Options -> Modules) as part of
the core UI. This should be a feature of Auto Update, if that is
installed (i.e. on Windows or Unix in evaluation mode), and properly
integrated with the update functionality (so that Delete really
uninstalls NBMs, see issue <a href="https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=20323">20323</a>, etc.).
</UL>
<H1>Solution</H1>
<a name="logical"><H3>Target systems and Logical Layout</H3></a>
We want to provide <em>RPM</em> packages for Linux, <em>Solaris</EM>
packages for Solaris, some Windows installer and <em>WebStart</EM> support
for direct download. These variation has to respect the OS rules, but
otherwise be as close as possible to each other to simplify crossplatform
maintanence problems. In order the hide the differences between various
platforms and also to describe the common root for layout on each individual
platform, we start with a definition of a <em>logical layout</em> of the
idealized installation structure.
<P>
Because of the requirement to have different <em>products</em> based on NetBeans
we have choosen a solution based on multiple installation directories
(for discussion see
<a href="https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=27151">issue 27151</a>).
Different <em>products</em> are composed from a set of <em>clusters</EM>.
There will be a <em>NetBeans Platform</EM>, <em>NetBeans IDE</em>,
<em>NetBeans Enterprise</em>,
and <em>NetBeans Branding</em> clusters. They will then
be composed into related products:
<UL>
<LI><b>NetBeans IDE Product</b> - contains the base <em>NetBeans
Platform cluster</em>, two clusters providing the basic
IDE functionality - <em>NetBeans IDE cluster</em> and
<em>NetBeans Enterprise cluster</em>. Moreover it will have
its own branding and other non-library parts
in its own <em>NetBeans Branding</em> cluster.
<P>
<LI><b>Native Product</b> - contains <em>NetBeans
Platform cluster</em> and the <em>NetBeans IDE cluster</em>
but it does not include <em>NetBeans Enterprise cluster</EM>
as it does not need the functionality at all. The own additions
of the product are in its own <em>Native cluster</em>.
</UL>
Each cluster
has its own install directory (<code>$nbplatform</code>, <code>$nbide</CODE>,
<code>$nbenterprise</code>,
<code>$nbweb</CODE> and <code>$nbnative</code>) with a following structure:
<UL>
<!-- No bin as it should be in Product RPM.
<LI><b>bin</b>: contains executables, does not contain
any subdirectories.
<P>
-->
<LI><b>lib</B>: contains native JNI libraries and basic boot files.
The naming policy of
the libraries is in hands of the modules, as that it has worked well enough till now.
If it proves unsufficient following conventions shall
be obeyed: <em>There are subdirectories under the <code>lib</code> directory
that reflect the architecture (e.g. <code>i386</code>, obtained
via <code>System.getProperty ("os.arch")</code>) and possibly also
subdirectory identifying the system (e.g. <code>i386/linux</code>, obtained
via <code>System.getProperty ("os.name").toLowerCase ()</code>). When the
system is looking for a particular library it scans the deepest directories
first and then the shallow ones (<code>lib/i386/linux</code>,
<code>lib/i386</code>, <code>lib</code>)</em>.
<P>
<LI><b>core</b>: contains JAR files that will be placed into the
dynamic system classpath when the NetBeans based system is starting.
<P>
<LI><b>modules</b>: contains directories and subdirectories with
modules. Usual convention is to name module according to its code name
base (e.g. org.netbeans.modules.html will be in JAR file org-netbeans-modules-html.jar)
and if the JAR uses <code>Class-Path</code> entry, then put such
extension into <code>ext/</code> subdirectory.
<P>
<LI><b>config</b>: is a place where configuration data are being stored
like Modules/ directory, etc. A view of this directory is visible
as <code>Repository.getDefaultFileSystem()</code> from inside running
NetBeans system.
<P>
<LI><b>docs</b>: a directory dedicated to documentation, release info,
credits.
</UL>
Different clusters may contain additional directories under their
<code>$nbcluster</code>. Their standardization is beyond the scope
of this paper right now with the exception of generic platform launcher.
<a name="launcher"><H3>Generic Launcher</H3></a>
The <code>$nbplatform</code> cluster is guaranteed to contain
<code>$nbplatform/lib/nbexec</code> executable that is supposed to be used
by final products. Example:
<p>
The NetBeans IDE product should provide its own executable
<code>/usr/bin/netbeans</code> which will locate the
<code>$nbplatform/lib/nbexec</CODE>
(currently implemented here for
<a href="https://netbeans.org/source/browse/ide/launcher/unix/Attic/netbeans?showattic=1">unix</a>
and here for
<a href="https://netbeans.org/source/browse/ide/launcher/windows/Attic/netbeans.cpp?showattic=1">windows</a>)
executable, read their own configuration files,
find out locations of additional clusters and pass
<code>--clusters /pathto/nb4.0:/pathto/ide4:/pathto/enterprise7</code>
and
<code>--userdir $HOME/.myproductuserdir</code> to it.
<P>
The Native Product should have its own launcher called
<code>netbeans-native</code> and
read its own settings, specify its own user directory and list
of clusters (probably <code>--clusters /pathto/ide6:/pathto/web9</code>
as the Native product is extension of the base NetBeans IDE without the enterprise part) and
pass that information to the generic <code>$nbplatform/lib/nbexec</code>.
<h4>Configuring the Launcher</h4>
The behaviour of <code>nbexec</code> launcher can be influenced by special
arguments and environment variables:
<UL>
<LI><b>--clusters</b> - specifies the paths to clusters that shall be
placed on the execution stack (config, modules, configurations, etc.).
Individual elements are separated using
<code>java.io.File.pathSeparator</CODE> so for example on Windows it is <q>;</Q>
and on Unix <q>:</q></i>
<p>
<LI><b>--branding</b> - gives the name of branding that shall be used
<p>
<LI><b>regular parameters</b> - these are end user oriented parameters
printed when invoked with --help option:
<pre>
Usage: bin/../platform4/lib/nbexec {options} arguments
General options:
--help show this help
--jdkhome &lt;path> path to Java(TM) 2 SDK, Standard Edition
-J&lt;jvm_option&gt; pass &lt;jvm_option&gt; to JVM
--cp:p &lt;classpath&gt; prepend &lt;classpath&gt; to classpath
--cp:a &lt;classpath&gt; append &lt;classpath&gt; to classpath
Core options:
--laf &lt;LaF classname&gt; use given LookAndFeel class instead of the default
--fontsize &lt;size&gt; set the base font size of the user interface, in points
--locale &lt;language[:country[:variant]]&gt; use specified locale
--userdir &lt;path&gt; use specified directory to store user settings
</pre>
</UL>
<HR>
<a name="versioning"><h3>Versioning of Clusters</H3></a>
As clusters evolve on a different schedule,
there comes a problem of <a href="#compat">compatibility</a>.
Easy solution is to version location of each version of a cluster.
If the <code>$nbplatform</code> includes a revision in its name as for example
<code>/opt/netbeans/platform3</code> it is easy to release new
incompatible version 4.0 and place it into
<code>/opt/netbeans/platform4</code>. Other clusters then can depend
on the right version of <code>$nbplatform</CODE>
as there can be more than one installed. This has the advantage of avoiding
incompatibilies, but has the disadvantage of locking you into a release that
may not have improvements that a newer release might give (performance?).
The improvements are important, the compatibility even more. The following paragraphs
analyze and discuss the rules of compatible development and describe the solution
that provides the right balance between compatibility and improvements adoption.
If you are not interested
in the discussion, just in the conclusion, you may <a href="#versioning-conclusion">jump right
there</a>.
<h4>Compatible development</H4>
Let's start with simple example. Imagine that there is <em>Native Product
1.0</em>
and <em>Web Product 7.1</em> and that:
<UL>
<LI><code>$nbnative</code> cluster (in the Native Product 1.0) needs
<code>debugger</code> major (incompatible) version 1 and minor x.y.z (as
it does not matter for this example)
<LI><code>$nbweb</code> (in the Web Product 7.1) needs <code>debugger</code>
major version 2 and minor a.b.c
<LI><code>debugger</code> module is provided by the base
<code>$nbjava</code>, version 4.3 delivers the <code>debugger</code> major
1 (minor u.v.r where u.v.r >= x.y.z so it satisfies the
requirements for Native Product 1.0)
and version 5.1 provides <code>debugger</CODE> major 2 (and some
specification version, which is not important)
</UL>
A client wants to use both the <em>Native</em> and <em>Web</EM> product at
the same time. E.g. install both of them on the same computer, run them
simultaneously (but not in the same VM) as two different applications.
As one product needs <code>debugger</code> major version 1 and second
major version 2, that means both versions have to be installed at once.
<P>
<a name="compat-req-a"><b>Requirement A:</B></a> It is necessary to install more than one incompatible
version at once.
<P>
<i>Note:
Version <code>3.1</code> of module <b>A</B> is
incompatible with version
<code>2.8</code> if there exists a module <b>B</B> that depends and runs with
version <code>2.8</code> of <b>A</B> and does not run with version <code>3.1</code>
of module <b>A</b>
(<a href="http://openide.netbeans.org/tutorial/api-design.html#api">more</a>).</I>
<P>
A possible solution is to encode the version (or at least major version)
of the module in the JAR file. So instead
of <code>text.jar</code> the module would be named
<code>debugger-1-1.32.jar</code>. Then multiple versions
could be installed at once.
Another possible solution is to place the JAR files into different directories.
Which means to encode some version number in the directories itself. Again this
satisfies the requirement that multiple incompatible versions can be installed at once.
<h4>Packaging into RPMs</H4>
Let's now discuss how the module or set of modules will be packaged into
native package formats. Let's imagine that:
<UL>
<LI>An RPM package <code>m.rpm</CODE> contains some files and also
<code>debugger</code> major version 1 and is delivered as part of
the <em>Native Product 1.0</EM>.
<LI>Another RPM package <code>n.rpm</code> (does not matter whether it is
just a different version of <code>m.rpm</code> or has completely different
name) contains the <code>debugger</code> major version 2 and is
delivered as part of <em>Web Product 7.1</EM>.
</UL>
As we have the <a href="#compat-req-a">requirement A</a> which asks for ability
to install two versions of the <code>debugger</CODE> at once, we can easily
deduce that both RPM packages have to be able to coexist at once. But to enable that
there has to be no conflict between files contained in them.
<P>
<a name="compat-req-1"><b>Observation 1:</B></a> Regardless of the size of native packages, an incompatible
change in one module means that other parts of the package has to change
location (pretend incompatible change) as well.
<P>
This implies that if we package whole cluster into one RPM and there is an
incompatible change in one module, which happens nearly every release, all files
in the RPM has to change location in order to allow coexistence with the
RPM of previous release. Well, if we do this, then it is better to include the
version number directly in the name of the directory, than uselessly mangle
names of the modules.
<P>
<a name="compat-product-rpm"><h4>RPM for Product and RPMs for Clusters</H4></a>
Imagine that we want to have the launcher for <em>NetBeans IDE Product</em> in a
shared location (<code>/usr/bin</CODE>) and we want it to keep the same name
when new releases are made (<code>/usr/bin/netbeans</code>).
<P>
Can this launcher script be part of the same RPM that contains the
<code>debugger</CODE> module? Due to <a href="#compat-req-1">observation 1</a>
it would have to change its name or location if <code>debugger</code> or other
part of the RPM would change incompatibly.
<P>
That either means to include a version name in the launcher script
(<code>netbeans35</code>) or keep it in separate RPM which only depends on
other cluster RPMs.
<P>
Better seems to have own RPM for <em>Product</em> that just declares dependencies on
RPMs for clusters, as this allows separation of compatibility versioning
(<code>nbjava35-1.0.rpm</CODE> and <code>nbjava36-1.0.rpm</code>) that appear to
the RPM management system as two different packages, the <em>user visible
versioning</em> like
<code>NetBeansIDEProduct-3.5.rpm</code> and
<code>NetBeansIDEProduct-3.6.rpm</code> that will be treated as updates with
proper notification. Of course this means to keep compatibility of the launcher script but
that shall not be as hard nor too important.
<a name="compat-ms"><h4>Impact on Module System</H4></a>
As discussed in previous paragraphs it is possible and desirable to allow
multiple (incompatible) versions of modules to be installed at once, but due to
the nature of the system, these versions cannot be enabled at once in one runtime.
<P>
In some cases more than one version of the module could be enabled at once,
but generally this is not possible. As many modules influence the content
of system file system (via its layer) enabling two similar modules
would very likely lead
to unresovable clashes in their configuration resources. The module system
would have to decide which of available versions enable and which not.
<P>
This is very similar to UNIX libraries. There can be more version of the same
library available and different applications can link to the desired version.
But no application can link to two versions of the library at once, as there
would be conflicts in the symbol names, etc.
<p>
<b>Observation 2:</b>The module system then would need to be modified not
to get confused by a presence of more similar modules at once and
correctly enable the desired one.
<P>
Moreover it is not exactly clear which version enable and which not. The
expectation of the <em>Native Product 1.0</em> is to enable <code>debugger</CODE>
major 1, as whole product is build around that version. The expectation of
<em>Web Product 7.1</EM> are different. It needs <code>debugger</CODE> major 2.
How the system is going to know that? By counting the number of dependencies on
version 1 and 2 and enabling the version that satisfies more modules? This is
a situation without a winning strategy.
<P>
As the compatibility is more important than any possible benefits from new
incompatible updates, it is better not to do any tricks in module system and
leave the decision on writers and packagers of the system.
<a name="compat-ext"><h4>External Contributions</H4></a>
Because of the modular nature of NetBeans system it is common that there exists
a lot of extensions written as modules to the basic functionality of any
product. There can be a module enhancing the refactoring functionality in Java
sources contributed by external team which is not part of the base release
of <em>NetBeans IDE Project</em>.
There are two ways how such extension can be contributed and presented to user.
<UL>
<LI>One can create <b>own product</b>. That means to start with new
cluster <code>$javaext</code>, providing the search module and release
own product <em>NetBeans Extended IDE</em> that will include
<code>$nbplatform</code>, <code>$nbjava</code>, <code>$nbxml</code> and
<code>$javaext</code> clusters. This way is suitable for major
contributions, simple extensions will rather use a second way.
<P>
<LI><b>Snake into</b> related cluster. As module extending java
functionality is likely to be tight to java it can be added
into the <code>$nbjava</code> directory. As such it immediatelly
begins to be part of all <em>products</em> using the
<code>$nbjava</code>.
</ul>
Can such snaking into an cluster break <em>products</em> using that cluster? Not on
linking or dependencies level, but there might be interferences on functionality
level (another loader starts to recognize the same file, two editors registered
for the same mime type, etc.). It is hard to guess the amount of such conflicts,
it shall not be bigger than our current state when one can autoupdate - download
modules and install them into products build on NetBeans. Anyway, there is a solution.
<P>
Every product defines its own <q>private</q> cluster not designed to be
used by any other product and all extensions are sneaked into this one
dedicated to all external contributions to the IDE (the cluster is named <code>nb4.x</code>
in recent versions of NetBeans). Other products based on the
<code>$nbjava</code> or <code>$nbenterprise</CODE> clusters do not see and cannot be
affected by such extensions.
<P>
It is necessary to realize that sneaking a non-autoload module into a cluster
that is designed for sharing is a bit dangerous. Every product will see such
added module and the module will be enabled by default. This may mean changes
in semantics, and that is why it is better (for non-autoload modules) to sneak
into product private cluster.
<P>
There is another related problem to sneaking - <em>uninstallation</em>.
If user installs external modules in the <code>$nbjava</code> dir created
via package installation, then when uninstalling this cluster,
this may create some problems. Uninstaller will not be able to
properly clean up the product/cluster installation directories.
Some files will be left behind. As the installer does not
know if its safe to delete these dirs or not.
<a name="compat-restrictions"><h4>Restrictions</H4></a>
Althrough the system based on encoding a compatibility number of a version in a
cluster location name works sufficiently fine, it still has to be used with a
care as there is a problem that it does not solve: <em>transitivity of
incompatible change</em>.
<P>
<em>Example:</em> Let's imagine that <code>$nbide</code> cluster version
<code>4.8</code> is build on top of <code>$nbplatform</code> version
<code>3.9</code>. After a while new, incompatible release of platform is
produced, placed into a separate directory and having a different number
<code>3.10</code>. When this is noticed by developers working on the
<code>$nbide</code> product, they decide to rewrite their code to use the new
version of <code>$nbplatform</code>, but they keep every own API backward
compatible. Thus they release update to their product that has new version of
<code>$nbide</code> cluster compatible with <code>4.8</code> (thus still in the
same directory as previous version) and version <code>3.10</code>
of <code>$nbplatform</code>. Now we can observe the <em>compatibility
transitivity problem</em>.
<P>
Because if there is a product (like <code>$nbweb</code>) that was written
against <code>$nbplatform</code> version <code>3.9</code> and
<code>$nbide</code> version <code>4.8</code> and is using API interfaces from
both clusters and relies on their compatibility, it can get broken when
new version of IDE Product that depends on <code>$nbplatform 3.10</code> is released.
The reason is that <code>$nbweb</code> needs version <code>3.9</code> and the
<code>$nbide</code> needs <code>3.10</code> and they cannot work together.
<P>
The <em>transitivity</em> problem is unwanted, uneliminatable effect. But it is
easily preventable if developers are careful enough. The only necessary thing
is to <em>produce an incompatible version</em> whenever any of clusters we depend
on changes incompatibly. So in the example above, the IDE Product should include
new incompatible <code>$nbide 4.9</code> instead of pretending compatible
evolution.
<a name="versioning-conclusion"><h4>Conclusion</H4></a>
<UL>
<LI>As not all clusters can commit to do compatible development for now and ever
(reality of life)
<LI>As two or more versions of the module has to be installed at once
(<a href="#compat-req-a">discussed here</a>)
<LI>As RPMs carrying incompatible variations have to able to coexist
(<a href="#compat-req-1">discussed here</a>)
<LI>As having the two versions of a module would complicate the module system
(<a href="#compat-ms">discussed here</a>)
<LI>As there shall be a Product and Cluster packages
(<a href="#compat-product-rpm">discussed here</a>)
<LI>As we need extensibility of clusters
(<a href="#compat-ext">discussed here</a>)
</UL>
One native package is created for each cluster (platform, java, xml, native,
web) and places the cluster into a directory containing version
specification (e.g. <code>/opt/netbeans/platform-3.5</code>). <em>Note: It is
possible to compose one cluster from multiple RPMs, as will happen in case of
<a href="#compat-ext">third party contributions</a>, but that does
not influence any of conclusions that follow</em>. If a compatible
update is released, it shares the same native package name and be placed into
the same directory. Just the native package version is increased.
On the other hand, new incompatible release has to be placed
into its own directory (e.g. <code>/opt/netbeans/platform-3.6</code>) and must
allow coexistence with the previous incompatible versions.
<P>
It is up to the individual clusters to decide whether they want to develop in
compatible or incompatible way. Both is possible with all its pros and cons. The
ability to deliver compatible releases highly depends on correct partitioning of
clusters.
<P>
The cluster is packaged into one or more RPMs that are designed to keep
external compatibility as much as possible - for that reason they contain
the name of the version in their name (<code>nbplatform5</code> vs. <code>nbplatform6</code>),
thus allowing different incompatble versions
of an cluster to be installed at once. It is possible that the same directory
is filled with a content of foreign RPMs that just want to provide some
extensions to the base functionality of such extension.
<P>
There is a <em>product</em> RPM containing just the <em>launcher</em> script and
possibly private product cluster,
having references to all clusters that it needs. This product RPM does not
include compatibility identification as it will evolve in compatible way
(also due to the fact that nobody is supposed to depend on it cluster) and
thus new versions of the product are easily recognizable by native package
managers and offered for update. Such update will then update all needed
clusters with their appropriate versions. Removing of useless cluster native
packages that are not needed anymore would be nice, but is more a task
for the native packager that should realize that there is a package used by
nobody.
<h5>Good Practices: Do not package things with different compatibility lifecycle
together</h5>
In order to minimize the effect of incompatible change, it is better to keep the
compatibility units in the right size. The lifecycle of <em>Java Support</em> is
likely very independent from lifecycle of <em>XML Support</em>. If both of them
are packaged in one <em>cluster</em> and thus share the same <em>compatibility
domain</em> if one of them makes incompatible change, the other parts have to
pretend incompatible change as well. This wastes and hurts people who depend on
a feature in <em>Java Support</em> and have to make changes just because
something incompatible happened in <em>XML Support</em>. That is why it is
suggested to separate functionality with unrelated <em>compatibility
lifecycle</em> into own clusters.
<h5>Good Practices: Separate API modules and GUI modules</h5>
API and GUI are example of interfaces that have exactly different
<em>compatibility lifecycle</em>. While API has to be kept stable and compatible
as much as possible, no such restriction is placed on GUI. Minor changes in each
version are nearly requirement, incompatible changes common. That is why it is
suggested to separate the modules providing API and those that provide GUI.
<P>
If separated, then the API module can become autoload and can be deprected
after a while (but still offered for a compatiblity) and after another while
completely removed. The GUI module can meanwhile change inside out, with a
possiblity to introduce new API autoload module that replaces the old deprecated
one.
<h5>Good Practices: API modules should not register anything</h5>
In order to implement the slow deprecation of an API and its replacement by a
newer version it is necessary to prevent any clashes that could occur between
the old and new module. An example of such clash are for example registrations
in a layer or objects in a lookup. To prevent these problems it is suggested
that API modules (which should be
autoload anyway) do not register anything (or at least much) that could clash
with their future replacements.
<h5>Good Practices: Do compatible development</h5>
Obviously evolving a module in compatible manner is the best way around all
problems described here in. It is often better to replace an API with newer
version while keeping the deprecated one around working well for clients that
did not manage to migrate.
<P>
Breaking compatibility of a cluster every release means that products depending
on your cluster will never get an updated version or in the best case, you will
have to produce patches and updates for critical bugs to more incompatible
versions of a cluster at once. Which is bigger price than one really wants to pay.
<HR>
<a name="real"><H3>Real Layouts</H3></a>
Here is the mapping of the <a href="#logical">logical layout</a>
to physical locations on different operating systems.
<h5>Windows</H5>
The simplest case is Windows. As it lacks any centralized package management at
all, the physical and logical layouts will remain the same. Each cluster will be
placed in its own directory (<code>$nbcluster</code> in
<cite>c:\Program Files\NetBeans\platform3\</CITE>)
and the content of its directory will match the logical layout.
<P>
Appropriate execution scripts are supposed to be installed into the
<code>c:\Program Files\NetBeans\bin</code> directory by the installer of actual
Product.
<P>
Each product installer will mark and register each installed cluster into
windows or JDK1.4 registry, so other installers are able to find the previously
installed clusters and reuse them.
<h5>Solaris - workstation install</H5>
As all parts of NetBeans are unbundled (not part of Solaris OS distribution) the
installation goes into <code>/opt</code> directory. Based on
<a href="http://www.pathname.com/fhs/2.2/fhs-3.12.html">
Unix Filesystem Hierarchy Standard</a>, so for example
<code>$nbplatform</code> will mainly be <code>/opt/netbeans/platform3/</code>
directory to identify the version).
<UL>
<!--
<LI>The logical <code>$nbcluster/config</CODE>
directory shall be mapped to <code>/etc/opt/netbeans/cluster6</code>
(where <code>6</CODE> is the version number) directory.
The reason is / and /opt could be separate filesystems, /opt may be
read-only and/or remote.
-->
<LI>The <code>$nbcluster/config</code>,
<code>$nbcluster/lib</code>, <code>$nbcluster/share</code> and
<code>$nbcluster/docs</code> are placed
under <code>/opt/netbeans/cluster6</CODE>
</UL>
<!--
This will be the default workstation install layout.
The default locations
of the other necessary clusters for a launcher script of a product
(Web consists of $nbplatform, $nbjava, $nbxml, $nbweb, etc.) shall be hardcoded
into each launcher script, but there shall be a way how to override this
default and specify different location of other necessary clusters. E. g.:
<PRE>
nbweb - -platformdir /home/yarda/tmp/nbplatform \
- -javadir /home/yarda/tmp/nbjava \
- -xmldir /home/yarda/tmp/nbxml
</PRE>
or some environment variables to allow
usage of clusters in non-standard locations. If one of the
directory flags is omited, it is being searched in its default location
(hardcoded in the script).
-->
<P>
The native package for each <em>Product</em> will provide launcher scripts and
additional icons. Executables shall be installed in <code>/opt/bin</code>.
<h5>Solaris - compound install</H5>
There shall be a way how to install the cluster
for <em>evaluation purposes</em> or as a <em>shared server installation</EM>.
In such kind of install the user shall
have a way to specify the root <code>$nbcluster</code> directory and the physical
layout will then exactly reflect the logical one as on Windows.
<P>
<i><b>Example:</B> One installs NetBeans into
<code>/server/for/clients/soft/netbeans/</CODE> on server and mounts it as
<code>/opt/netbeans</CODE> on clients.
The directory <code>/opt/netbeans/platform-3.5</code> than contains everything
<code>config</code>, <code>lib</code>, <code>boot</code>, <code>modules</code>, <code>docs</code>. </I>
<P>
The default locations of other needed clusters in launcher script shall use
relative paths, so if a set of clusters ($nbnative, $nbenterprise, $nbjava, $nbxml)
is installed into one server location
(<code>/server/for/clients/soft/netbeans/</CODE>) than there is a need of only
one NFS mount to make all of them available on client systems. Moreover the
relative paths will continue to be valid, whereever the components are relocated
to. Of course these default paths shall be overridable by specifying arguments
or some environment variables to allow
usage of clusters in non-standard locations.
<P>
The native package for each <em>Product</em> that provides executables shall
install them to <code>bin</code> directory under the NetBeans server
installation directory. E. g. <code>/server/for/clients/soft/netbeans/bin</code>
in the example in previous paragraph.
<P>
<i><b>Note:</B>
For Solaris server-based installations, it is better not to edit
the launch scripts at installation time. The path to $nbjava may
be different on the desktops. Each desktop should mount $nbjava
and $nbplatform to the default location, or each desktop should
use an environment variable, or ....
Also it is better not to complicate the installer by requiring different
kinds of installations for servers. The installer shall not need to know if it
is doing a server or a local install. No editing
of scripts at install time.
</I>
<h5>Linux</H5>
The Linux case is the same as Solaris one, just instead of <code>/opt</code>
we install into <code>/usr/share</code> for everything. In case of
<code>$nbplatform/lib/nbexec</code> it should be in
<code>/usr/lib/netbeans/nbexec</code>.
Instead of <code>/etc/opt</code> we use directly <code>/etc</code>.
<P>
Linux <em>Product RPMs</em> will normally install additional things into
e.g. /etc/X11/applnk/Applications, /usr/share/pixmaps, etc. Typically
each Product (i.e. the RPM that included the product launcher
script) would create a set of such files along to the command line launcher.
<h5>ZIP file structure</h5>
For purposes of evaluation and testing a ZIP file can be build every day
for each product. Such archive would then contain all clusters necessary for the
product under a common directory with the structure of each cluster exactly
mirroring its logical one. The product launcher would be in a special
<code>bin</code> directory. Here is an example of possible structure of
<em>NetBeans IDE Product</em>:
<PRE>
netbeans/bin/netbeans
netbeans/platform4/boot
netbeans/platform4/modules
netbeans/platform4/config
netbeans/ide7/modules
netbeans/ide7/lib
netbeans/ide7/config
etc.
</PRE>
<HR>
<a name="user"><H3>User Directory Layout</H3></a>
When running an application based on <em>NetBeans</EM> usually a
directory with write access is needed to hold temporary files, caches,
log files, user modifications, etc. The logical as well as physical structure of such
directory mimics the <a href="#logical">logical installation structure</a> plus
adds few directories where changes are being stored.
<UL>
<LI><b>modules</b>, <b>docs</B>: have the same
meaning as in the common installation. The user can install
additional modules here (usually by AutoUpdate because we do not want to
mix the native packager installed modules with those installed by
AutoUpdate).
<LI><b>config</b>: contains user modifications to files found in
shared <b>config</b> directories as well as those in module's <b>layers</b>
<LI><b>var/cache</b>: contains pre-cached information about things
that can be found elsewhere (mostly info about enabled modules, etc.)
<LI><b>var/log</b>: directory to write logs to. Will contain more than one
log file, at least <em>messages</EM>, and older archives <em>messages.1</em>,
<em>messages.2</em> like the <code>/var/log</code> directory system does.
<LI><b>var/cache</b>: directory to keep discardable caching files in. Right
now used only by platform to cache informations about enabled modules.
<LI>There maybe additional directories provided by different clusters in the
structure
</UL>
It is not reasonable to share this directory between different <em>Products</EM> - the
cache would be useless, the logs would get confusing and also the user
modifications to the <b>config</B> would could be ambiguous. That is why each
<em>Product</em> shall define its own directory prefix (based on its name) and
pass it into the general <code>nbexec</CODE> command (for example using the
<code>--defaultuserdir</code> parameter). The user can override
the default during invocation of the
the product launcher (e.g. <code>nbweb --userdir myuserdir</code>).
<HR>
<a name="influence"><H3>Influence on other parts of the system</H3></a>
<h4><a name="influence-on-autoupdate">AutoUpdate</a></h4>
AutoUpdate has been modified to work with clusters on systems where it is
used to update the whole product (Windows, ZIP installations on UNIX) and allow
to install module not only as <q>Global</q> but also select the exact location
where to install among the clusters used by the running product.
<P>
When a native package installation is used, AutoUpdate is restricted from
accessing the directories/clusters under the control of native package manager.
Which usually means to update just user directory.
<P>
Localization of updater must be possible. The proposed solution is to pass the
branding and cluster directories from a product launcher directly to updater so
it can in its early stages know the right language or branding variant.
<!-- Nice to have:
<P>
Structure of NBMs needs to be enhanced so the AutoUpdate will know into which
cluster this NBM belongs. The NBM will either
contain more folders or there has to be tag in the info file which will
specify the cluster. Someone has to add the tag or the folder and
updater has to read it. This is change in both Updater and NBM build
process. (Notice that this only applies if we still allow AU to update
the shared directory). The old NBMs have to be handled somehow (only user dir
install?).
-->
<h5>Detailed Functional Analysis</h5>
<OL>
<LI>Regardless of how the product is installed, user is allowed to
autoupdate to his user directory (if the autoupdate is present, e.g. it
is not in webstart version). If that happens, the modules in user
dir takes precedence over system one (if it is newer).
<LI>If the product is installed from <a href="#installation-scenario-unix">
RPM or solaris package</a> and
possibly also from WindowsInstaller, the autoupdate is not able to
update those clusters. This is signaled by existing
<code>$nbcluster/.noautoupdate</code> file. In such case the
autoupdate must not touch the directories.
<LI>If the product or its part is not installed using native
installation method (packages), the autoupdate is technically able to
update these clusters. It will recognize them by non existance of
<code>$nbcluster/.noautoupdate</code> (this is likely to be created by RPMs
and other native packagers). In order to work correctly the AutoUpdate needs to
decide which cluster the to be installed NBM belongs. If the NBM represents
<b>an update</b>, it should be put into the same cluster where the original
NBM was. If the NBM is new and user would like to install it globally,
the module is installed into the "highest" - e.g. private
cluster (in case of NetBeans nb4.x), as it represents the
product private cluster and thus the influence of an NBM installed
this way on other products is minimal - more likely zero.
</OL>
<h5>Hotfix Example</h5>
The most desired use of AutoUpdate is for delivering hotfixes. So let's present a
small example of how that could be done. Imagine we want to deliver new version
of the <b>editor module</b> to our users.
<p>
First thing to do is to create an NBM file and make it available on one of our
AutoUpdate centers. Users running on any platform, using any kind of installation
method (but <a href="#installation-scenario-webstart">
WebStart</a>) can see it and without any restrictions install in their
user directory. As the user directory takes precedence over shared install
locations, the new <b>editor module</b> will be activated for those users.
This is exactly as it works in version 3.6.
<p>
Users that used <a href="#installation-scenario-windows">
windows or ZIP installation</a> style, will have a chance to select global
installation of the NBM file and replace the <b> editor module</b> in <code>ide4</code>
cluster (as it was already installed).
<p>
Those that are using <a href="#installation-scenario-unix">UNIX installation</a>
based on native packages will not be able to install NBM file globally, as it would
clash with native RPM databases. Instead they will connect to their favourite
RPM distribution server (urpmi, apt, yum - something like AutoUpdate for RPMs)
and download and upgrade the native package that contains <b>editor module</b>.
This requires those who are producing NBMs to also produce RPMs and Solaris
packages or patches and make them available on suitable distribution channels.
<h4><a name="influence-module-system">Module System</a></H4>
There is the <a href="#1bit">requirement 1</a> that components installed in separate
native packages (javahelp, xalan, tomcat). In order to solve it we will need to
use simlinks or enhance the module
system to recognize not only files .jar, but also files <code>.library</code>
that would contain full path to the set of JAR files that they reference. That
way the clusters need not contain all their JAR files, but could reference other
system components. This is tracked as issue
<a href="https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=53898">53898</a>.
<HR>
Comments to <a href="mailto:nbdev@netbeans.org">nbdev@netbeans.org</A> please.
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