Swift toolchain location on Linux - swift

I'm looking into running Swift on a Ubuntu 16.04 server. However I want to be certain about where I should install the toolchain.
From swift.org:
If you installed the Swift toolchain on Linux to a directory other than the system root, you will need to run the following command, using the actual path of your Swift installation...
Then from Kitura's Setting Up instructions:
After extracting the .tar.gz file, update your PATH environment variable so that it includes the extracted tools:
$ export PATH=<path to uncompressed tar contents>/usr/bin:$PATH
Where is the best place to install these type of things? In the past I would rely on apt-get or installation scripts provided by maintainers but this doesn't seem to be the case with Swift.
Are there any benefits or disadvantages to not installing it at the system root?
Note: This question borders on "best practices", which I believe is frowned upon here. I'm sorry about that; I've googled around and this seems to be something that people know implicitly. However, I don't yet and need some guidance

The versions of the software in your system root - in /usr/bin, /usr/share, /usr/lib, etc. - are carefully coordinated by the maintainers of your distribution to handle all reasonable dependencies. The maintainers also keep the software up-to-date with bug fixes.
When you need to install software that isn't supplied by your distribution, it's best to install it in a separate directory, such as /opt (in your case, one possibility is /opt/swift-3.1.1). This will avoid overwriting existing installed software (in your case, /usr/bin/lldb and /usr/lib/lldb) with something that's possibly incompatible with other software. And it will make it easy to uninstall (just rm -r /opt/swift-3.1.1 rather than having to get a list of files from the original tarball that are potentially strewn all over /usr).
There is some extra effort: you'll need to add /opt/swift-3.1.1/usr/bin to your PATH1. With some software, you'll need to add the directory containing dynamic library files to LD_LIBRARY_PATH. The software's installation instructions typically explains what you need to do.
[1]An alternative to changing PATH is to add a symlink to each new executable, in a directory that's already in your PATH. GNU Stow can help you do this.

Related

Installing Perl and GCC on NFS

We have 15 Solaris-10 (Dinosaurs, I know) zones, all of which have a few NFS-mounted file systems. In fact, I have been installing my Perl scripts there so that I need only edit once and it is updated for all 15 zones. We have an opportunity to install Perl-5.20 in a separate directory tree from the Perl-5.8 environment the users are [in their view] locked into. Similarly, they see themselves as locked into gcc 3.3.2, terrified to budge. We have an opportunity to install the latest gcc (including g++, of course) in a similarly alternative directory tree. I guess the idea would be to install the new gcc, then use that to configure and compile Perl.
The problem: Configuring the new Perl and gcc installations in a different directory tree from the default is kinda error-prone. (There are likely another non-default options as well.) To do the same non-standard installations 15 times is SO inviting a screw-up!
My solution (maybe): Install the newer Perl & gcc in a directory on an NFS-mounted file system, like my utilities. Those in the know (the DBAs mainly) would put that directory earlier in $PATH than /usr/local/bin. Those not in the know - said terrified users - would remain blissfully unaware of the much better tools under their noses and never the twain shall meet to be blamed for messing up the environment of the other.
Is this a realistic solution? Are there library dependencies within Perl and gcc that would rule out an NFS installation? Has anyone done this before? (Actually, I think they did this at one place I worked but the always messed the code in the process.)
Thanks much for help here.
-- JS
I recently built gcc 4.9 from source and used it to build Perl 5.18.2 on Solaris 10 on an NFS share without any problems. Our stack of cpan modules installed without issue, including DBD::Oracle.

How to install Perl offline

I have a Linux server that has no access to the internet (access is prevented by a firewall). I would like to install a new Perl. What are my options and what is the best way to do this? The system Perl (included in OS installation) must remain unchanged.
I have been using perlbrew and I think it is the best way to do an online installation. But all the steps involved in perlbrew seem to require internet access: you download it from the net, it downloads new Perl versions from the net etc. and I haven't found a glue how to make it work offline.
If perlbrew is out of question I could build Perl from source into a custom location on the server. I assume that this could end up being complicated, time-consuming and error-prone. And every time I update Perl I have make a new build manually.
There can also be other ways to install that I'm not currently aware of. And of course I could stick with the system Perl but it is an outdated version and I'm already using the new syntax features. Or I could start negotiations to change the firewall policy to allow internet access for perlbrew.
But all the steps involved in perlbrew seem to require internet access
Not if properly configured.
To install perlbrew itself off-line, install the App-perlbrew dist. Following its dependencies manually is a chore, so instead prepare a MiniCPAN mirror (with -p to include Perl dists), take it over to the target machine and configure CPAN to use the local mirror. Run cpan App::perlbrew to install.
After perlbrew is installed, run its mirror command to configure a CPAN mirror into $PERLBREWROOT/Config.pm. Edit this file to change it to the local MiniCPAN mirror. Drop Perl dist tarballs into $PERLBREWROOT/dists/.
Be aware that compiling Perl requires a working C compiler toolchain, and optionally the development files for libdb (BerkeleyDB) and gdbm. (Read the INSTALL file once over, even though perlbrew's autoconfiguration and Perl's configure.SH defaults hide these details from you.)
The compiler toolchain is probably much more difficult to procure off-line, unless the OS installation has already been used before for compiling other C stuff.
There's nothing that special about perlbrew. If you aren't going to use it to download the Perl sources, it's not saving you that much. Once you have the Perl sources, you just need to configure and install it:
% ./Configure -des -Dprefix=/path/to/installation
% make install
Once done, everything for that Perl is under that installation path.
I dislike perlbrew mostly because it hides from people how amazingly simple this task is so they feel like they can't do it on their own.
Have you considered attacking it from a different direction? Keeping this up-to-date is going to be a pain if you have to request internet access each time. Likewise, if you've missed out/misconfigured any packages in your CPAN mirror it's difficult to correct once you're actually trying to use them.
Perhaps just build a small VM with a cut-down linux + perl + modules. Keep that up-to-date at your end and just take the whole lot in on a USB stick. You'd have a known-working easy-to-setup installation.
What I personally do is using git checkout when I'm offline (and not on vacation). Once you have the whole git work directory, it's trivial to build any released version by checking out the tags:
git checkout v5.17.4
git clean -f # cleanup previously compiled .o files etc
sh ./Configure ...
Depending on how you can transfer files to your host, this can be handy, since you you can also setup a private git repo there so other computer can git push new commits to there.

How to install packages/programs from sunfreeware to home directory without root access

I on solaris 10 and I wanted to install the latest version of emacs.
I don't have root access. I tried compiling emacs 23.4 from source and I am struck due to an old version of compiler in my system.
I am trying to use the per-built binary from sunfreeware.com, Is there a means to install it in my home directory without root access?
It should be possible for most packages as long as their binaries support to be relocated.
You first need to convert the pkg files to their filesystem variant with pkgtrans, then, in most cases, you also need to extract the embedded archive which is just a cpio file.
Finally, you will need to adjust file permissions using the prototype file and possibly tweak some files or environment variables like LD_LIBRARY_PATH to have the program or libraries be functional.
Of course this can become quite cumbersome when you have to repeat all of this for every dependency the initial package might have.
I don't know about emacs but I suspect it to have many dependencies so the technique I suggest here might be too complex to worth the effort, especially as emacs has an alternative which is always installed and that many people prefer, I mean of course vi.

netbeans c++ deployment

I had developed a small program in netbeans using c++. I need to know how can i deploy/run the package on another linux system
Abdul Khaliq
I have seen your code, you probably missing XML files in the current folder... where the executable is located... paste then and then run as ./your-executable
I recommend that you use a makefile to recompile on your target machine which will ensure that your program is deployed properly.
You should use a makefile as suggested. I know that NetBeans can generate one, but it's been a while since I last did so. Maybe this can help: http://forums.netbeans.org/topic3071.html
Typically, once compiled, your executable will need several libraries. Chance is that those libraries will also be available on the target linux system.
Thus, you can simply copy your executable over to the other system. If you run ldd on your executable, you should see the list of libraries your executable is dynamically loading. Those libraries should be available on the target system as well.
In case your executable makes use of resources such as images and other binary files, you can use a resource system (e.g. Qt Resource System) and compile those binary files into your executable.
The easiest way to test is to do the copy, run
ldd yourExecutable
on the target system. It will tell you if you are missing any library. Install those libraries using the system package manager.
Of course, you also have the option to statically build all libraries into your executable. However, this is not recommended since it makes the executable too large and complicates matters.
What type of package is your netbeans compiler creating? deb,rpm? If you are moving the package to a different linux install you will need to use that distributions package type. Ubuntu - deb
Fedora/Redhat - rpm
etc...
I'm not sure how you change this in netbeans but I'm pretty sure it has the ability to. A google search could help you more.

How do I install Perl modules on machines without an Internet connection?

I need to install my Perl-based software on networked machines which aren't connected to the internet. Therefore, I would like to download specific versions and/or latest versions of the Perl modules and I would also like to know if there is an install procedure required for these modules.
Background:
The machines aren't connected to the internet for security reasons and its deemed unnecessary also.
I would place the downloaded modules on a machine that I call the 'install server' and it contains my Perl based software and would also contain the local copies of the Perl modules.
I call a machine that I want to install my Perl-based software on, the 'target machine', also not connected to the internet. There can be several target machines, each can run this software that I want to install. I log onto the target machine and run an install script which would connect to the install machine via the local network to obtain the Perl-based software and dependent Perl modules and installs them.
So I need to know:
How/Where to get specific versions of Perl modules, e.g. CGI.pm etc
How to install these Perl modules. Is it a case of just placing them in a directory somewhere, e.g. a library path and making sure that this directory path is in the #INC library path environmental variable, if it is not already?
I would prefer not to have to do anything like make install etc. as part of installing the modules. I would like to modules to be pre-compiled or prepared as necessary so it is as simple as possible to install them. I want to avoid additional dependencies like make and its configuration, and having to parse its output to check whether it was successful.
Please help me by asking the above specific questions as I am not able to change the concept of 'install machine' and 'target machine' which aren't connected to the internet - I have to provide a solution that works within this arrangement.
The usual way to solve "I want to install stuff from CPAN but without network" problems is to use a minicpan as David Dorward wrote in his answer. But since you're going one step further, saying that you'd rather not do any real installation on the client (target) machines at all, and that you want to use precompiled modules if possible, I urge you to check out PAR and specifically PAR::Repository (server) and PAR::Repository::Client.
Since this approach needs some research before you're up to speed, I wouldn't suggest it for "I just need Foo.pm" like problems. Once you're talking about a handful of dependencies and at least a handful of clients, then it becomes a more appropriate solution.
For an outline of how it works, check out the slides of my talk at YAPC::EU 2008. It also hints at solutions to the bootstrapping problem of making the PAR::Repository::Client module available on the clients (hint: PAR can generate self-contained executables).
You can create a MiniCPAN that has just the latest versions of everything from CPAN. You can insert additional, non-public modules into it with CPAN::Mini::Inject. If you need to greater control over versions (i.e. not choosing the latest versions), you might want to create a DPAN.
With any of these solutions, you can configure your CPAN client to pull from your local source. That could be a directory you know ahead of time or something that you figure out dynamically, like a CD or a thumb-drive. It's just a matter of setting up the configuration correctly.
You might be able to get away with creating operating-system packages for most of your work, but that still means you have to compile them at least the first time.
1) How/Where to get specific versions of Perl modules, e.g. CGI.pm etc
http://search.cpan.org/
If you don't want the latest version, you can get an earlier version by following the link in the breadcrumbs.
http://img.skitch.com/20091209-bu7kt3bj65374k7iijfnhrue2y.png
2) How to install these Perl modules. Is it a case of just placing them
in a directory somewhere, e.g. a library path and making sure that this
directory path is in the #INC library path environmental variable, if
it is not already?
That sometimes work, but you really should go through the perl Makefile.PL && make && make test && make install process.
Doing this would require that you manually chase all the dependencies though. You would probably be better off with something like minicpan.