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Re: Projects with shared libraries


From: Paola Attadio
Subject: Re: Projects with shared libraries
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 10:55:31 -0300
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax)

Sorry, I have a mistake, please remplace import in the text for "working copy"

Paola Attadio wrote:
Paul,

Thanks, your answer is clear but the problem is another.

Let me explain, for example, I have 3 projects A, B and C. C is a set of generic libraries, same frameworks that A and B need.

I'm using RedHat Linux as repository server with WinCVS clients. The clients "import" a CVS module A, or B and need C to work. I want A and B to reference C inside their modules. I'm not worried about build links.

Is it possible to have "virtuals" folders and files inside A and B that "reference" C (in other words, "symbolic links" to physical files or folders to module C), and when developers IMPORT A or B, download the set of libraries referenced by these "virtuals" folders / files, and then they don't have to download module C, this is transparent for them.


Best Regards,

Paola

Paul Sander wrote:
I think it me who didn't communicate clearly!  :-)

The problem you describe appears to be a classic software reuse issue,
in which you want to reduce the overhead to maintain some subset of your
code that finds its way into many products.  There are many ways to
share code, each with their advantages and drawbacks.  Methods include
cutting and pasting lines of code in the source files, copying entire
source files, building libraries and linking with them, build macros
and templates, invoking executables, and many more that involve sharing
artifacts not known by the build procedure per se (i.e. reusing various
parts of the design and the code that follows from them).

If I understand your specific issue correctly, you have some source code
that you build into a library that links into several products.  The
library may be built and maintained on its own schedule, and the products
upgrade their version of the library at their own convenience.  The library
builds are probably kept in well-known places with the expectation that
product builds will use them.  However, the reference and reproducibility
requirements of the overall process have added complexity because the
product builds must somehow track which versions of the library they use.
The library's build procedure must be such that any version of the library
must be reproducible, where the version is supplied as an argument from
a product build.

If you're building on Unix, then picking up the libraries at link time
is a matter of setting the proper search paths and naming the desired
libraries.  This is usually done with options like -L and -R to set
search paths, and -l to identify the libraries.  It's easy to identify
the names of the libraries to supply with -l options.  The challenge is
to set up the search paths.  The reason for this is because the search
paths themselves must be (or derive from) arguments passed to the product
build, and the arguments must be stored and tracked for repeatability and
reproducibility.

There are a number of methods to store such arguments.  One is to list the
references in environment variables, and version control the script that
sets them.  Another is to compute them during a setup step and check them
in.  Yet another is the buildref method, which is a kind of publish-and-
subscribe method where reference builds publish their interfaces and product
builds refer to those interfaces (and remember which reference builds they
used).

Since you're at Oracle, you probably also have ClearCase at your disposal.
Its wink-in (build avoidance) capability built into Clearmake offers yet
another useful opportunity for reuse.

  
--- Forwarded mail from address@hidden
    

  
I appreciate your answer, but I think I didn't explain my problem well.
    

  
The projects I mentioned are independent from each other, and they share 
common libraries. I would like to have only one copy of these shared 
libraries, and a reference to them in each of my project modules. This 
way, I wouldn't have duplicated libraries' code in the projects that are 
sharing them. And when I upgrade the libraries (i.e. when a new release 
appears) I would have to do it only once.
    

  
I'm not sure if CVS has this feature, I'm only asking if any of you has 
done this before or knows how to do it.
    

  
Paul Sander wrote:
    

  
You could add the library to your product modules and build them all at
once.  However, I find that a better method is to subject the libraries to
the same kind of control as the rest of the product (with regular builds,
tagging sources, defect tracking and change control, etc.) and provide a
set of well-known interfaces that can be used and tracked by the product
builds.  The references themselves should be versioned in some way,
via source-controlled build scripts or environment settings, or by sampling
the build environment and checking it in.

A method that I've used with great success on many projects is the buildref
method.  You can find an implementation at the following URL:

http://www.wakawaka.com/source.html

--- Forwarded mail from address@hidden

I have some projects that share some libraries. Does CVS allow to have a 
common set of libraries that will be used by different projects?,
in other words, I need one copy of these libraries and a reference to 
them in each of the other projects.

--- End of forwarded message from address@hidden
      

  
--- End of forwarded message from address@hidden
    


  

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