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Creating Packages

A package is a component of a BOSH release that contains a packaging spec file and a packaging script. Each package also references source code or pre-compiled software that you store in the src directory of a BOSH release
directory.

You build BOSH packages in a BOSH release directory. Your release might contain one or more packages. This topic describes how to create a BOSH package that includes either source code or pre-compiled software.

The information and procedures in this topic form Step 3: Create Package Skeletons of the Creating a Release topic. Refer to that topic to understand where BOSH packaging fits in the context of creating a BOSH release.

Prerequisite

Create a release directory. Refer to the Create a Release Directory section in the Creating a BOSH Release topic.

Edit a Package Spec

You specify package contents in the package spec file. BOSH automatically creates this file as a template with the following sections when you run the bosh generate-package PACKAGE_NAME command:

  • name: Defines the package name.
  • dependencies: (Optional) Defines a list of other packages that this package depends on.
  • files: Defines a list of files that this package contains. You can define this list explicitly or through pattern-matching.
  • excluded_files: (Optional) Defines a list of files to be excluded from the package. You can define this list explicitly or through pattern-matching.

To edit a package spec file:

  1. Identify all compile-time dependencies. A compile-time dependency occurs when a package depends on another package. For more information, refer to the Make Dependency Graphs section of the Creating a BOSH Release topic.
  2. Run bosh generate-package PACKAGE_NAME for each compile-time dependency.

  3. Copy all files that the package requires to the src directory of the BOSH release directory.

    Typically, these files are source code. If you are including pre-compiled software, copy a compressed file that contains the pre-compiled binary.

  4. Edit each package spec file as follows:

    • Add the names of the files for that package.
    • Add the names of any compile-time dependencies to each package spec file. Use [] to indicate an empty array if a package has no compile-time dependencies.

    The example shows a Ruby spec file with dependencies and file names. Ruby 1.9.3 has a compile-time dependency on libyaml_0.1.4, and the ruby_1.9.3 source code consists of three files plus everything on the /security directory, which we want to be packaged together with this package, with the exception of the secrets.yml file.

    Example package spec file:

name: ruby_1.9.3

dependencies:
- libyaml_0.1.4

files:
- ruby_1.9.3/ruby-1.9.3-p484.tar.gz
- ruby_1.9.3/rubygems-1.8.24.tgz
- ruby_1.9.3/bundler-1.2.1.gem
- ruby_1.9.3/security/*

excluded_files:
- ruby_1.9.3/security/secrets.yml

Create a Packaging Script

BOSH automatically creates a packaging script file template when you run the bosh generate-package PACKAGE_NAME command. Each packaging script in a package must include a symlink in the format /var/vcap/packages/<package name> for each dependency and deliver all compiled code to BOSH_INSTALL_TARGET. Store the script in the packages/<package name>/packaging directory.

Note

If your package contains source code, the script must compile the code and deliver it to BOSH_INSTALL_TARGET. If your package contains pre-compiled software, the script must extract the binary from the compressed file and copy it to BOSH_INSTALL_TARGET.

Note

If your package contains pre-compiled software, record the operating system that the pre-compiled software requires. Because a pre-compiled binary runs only on a specific operating system, any deployment using a package containing pre-compiled software requires a stemcell that contains that operating system.

Example Ruby packaging script:

set -e -x

tar xzf ruby_1.9.3/ruby-1.9.3-p484.tar.gz
pushd ruby-1.9.3-p484
  ./configure \
   --prefix=${BOSH_INSTALL_TARGET} \
   --disable-install-doc \
   --with-opt-dir=/var/vcap/packages/libyaml_0.1.4

   make
   make install
popd

tar zxvf ruby_1.9.3/rubygems-1.8.24.tgz
pushd rubygems-1.8.24
  ${BOSH_INSTALL_TARGET}/bin/ruby setup.rb
popd

${BOSH_INSTALL_TARGET}/bin/gem install ruby_1.9.3/bundler-1.2.1.gem --no-ri --no-rdoc

cp -r security/ ${BOSH_INSTALL_TARGET}/common

Example script referencing pre-compiled code:

tar zxf myfile.tar.gz
cp -a myfile ${BOSH_INSTALL_TARGET}