PyBOMBS: First impressions and optional dependencies

Greetings,

Yesterday, I started playing with pybombs and fixed a few recipes
related to gr-osmosdr. During this process I made gr-osmosdr depend on
uhd, rtl-sdr, osmo-sdr, hackrf and gr-iqbal. I did this to ensure that
all supported input devices are made available to users. It should be
noted that all these packages are optional and gr-osmosdr would work
just fine with gnuradio as the only dependency still supporting
funcube dongles and I/Q file sources.

Later I will be adding a recipe for the gr-fcdproplus OOT source block
and add that as a gr-osmosdr dependency as well. This works well for
now since all these driver libraries are recent and well maintained.
However, as time goes this driver list will grow and the risk of
something breaking will increase. This made me think whether there may
be a need for a weaker dependency specification, something like the
“recommends” section in deb packages or the “variant” in macports?

As an alternate solution here & now, we could just remove all optional
dependencies from the gr-osmosdr recipe and instruct users to install
their preferred driver libraries prior to installing gr-osmosdr. Or
create meta-recipes that would provide the most common combinations. I
don’t know what would be the best solution.

Otherwise I found pybombs to be very easy to use and provide
sufficient flexibility for me to replace my own “build-gnuradio”
scripts for managing multiple installations of gnuradio.

Alex

On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 7:28 AM, Alexandru C. [email protected]
wrote:

Greetings,

Yesterday, I started playing with pybombs and fixed a few recipes
related to gr-osmosdr. During this process I made gr-osmosdr depend on
uhd, rtl-sdr, osmo-sdr, hackrf and gr-iqbal. I did this to ensure that
all supported input devices are made available to users. It should be
noted that all these packages are optional and gr-osmosdr would work
just fine with gnuradio as the only dependency still supporting
funcube dongles and I/Q file sources.

Alex,

Thanks for the report and all of the patches you submitted to PyBOMBS.
It’s a new project and will definitely need wide-spread testing and
help to get working well on various systems and for various needs.

Later I will be adding a recipe for the gr-fcdproplus OOT source block
and add that as a gr-osmosdr dependency as well. This works well for
now since all these driver libraries are recent and well maintained.
However, as time goes this driver list will grow and the risk of
something breaking will increase. This made me think whether there may
be a need for a weaker dependency specification, something like the
“recommends” section in deb packages or the “variant” in macports?

The ‘recommends’ is a very interesting idea. I’m not sure I like
forcing the installation of all of the base drivers for gr-osmosdr,
but if we have a menu-driven section if the dependencies are
recommended and allow the user to select which, if any, to also
install, that’d be great.

Would you open a feature issue on the PyBOMBS Redmine page suggesting
this?

As an alternate solution here & now, we could just remove all optional
dependencies from the gr-osmosdr recipe and instruct users to install
their preferred driver libraries prior to installing gr-osmosdr. Or
create meta-recipes that would provide the most common combinations. I
don’t know what would be the best solution.

I’m not sure, either. Until we figure out a concept like the
recommendations, my preference is to not include them as dependencies,
but I could be persuaded out of that thought. I’m guessing Philip
would argue for a meta-layer :slight_smile:

Otherwise I found pybombs to be very easy to use and provide
sufficient flexibility for me to replace my own “build-gnuradio”
scripts for managing multiple installations of gnuradio.

Alex

Thanks again!

Tom

On Fri, Jul 26, 2013 at 4:27 PM, Tom R. [email protected] wrote:

something breaking will increase. This made me think whether there may
be a need for a weaker dependency specification, something like the
“recommends” section in deb packages or the “variant” in macports?

The ‘recommends’ is a very interesting idea. I’m not sure I like
forcing the installation of all of the base drivers for gr-osmosdr,
but if we have a menu-driven section if the dependencies are
recommended and allow the user to select which, if any, to also
install, that’d be great.

Would you open a feature issue on the PyBOMBS Redmine page suggesting this?

Done.

As an alternate solution here & now, we could just remove all optional
dependencies from the gr-osmosdr recipe and instruct users to install
their preferred driver libraries prior to installing gr-osmosdr. Or
create meta-recipes that would provide the most common combinations. I
don’t know what would be the best solution.

I’m not sure, either. Until we figure out a concept like the
recommendations, my preference is to not include them as dependencies,
but I could be persuaded out of that thought. I’m guessing Philip
would argue for a meta-layer :slight_smile:

Maybe as compromise we can remove all optional dependencies except
rtl-sdr and uhd. That would provide a good default for 95% of the
users today and only require rtl-sdr as extra package since the
gnuradio recipe already depends on uhd.

Alex

On Sun, Jul 28, 2013 at 6:40 PM, Alexandru C. [email protected]
wrote:

funcube dongles and I/Q file sources.
However, as time goes this driver list will grow and the risk of
Would you open a feature issue on the PyBOMBS Redmine page suggesting this?

Done.

Thanks!

Maybe as compromise we can remove all optional dependencies except
rtl-sdr and uhd. That would provide a good default for 95% of the
users today and only require rtl-sdr as extra package since the
gnuradio recipe already depends on uhd.

Alex

I can see that, especially since we have uhd as a dep for gnuradio,
too. Also, rtl-sdr is lightweight and only depends on libusb, so it’s
a pretty safe one to install. And yeah, I agree, that takes care of
most people’s needs right now.

Tom

On 07/29/2013 11:10 AM, Tom R. wrote:

just fine with gnuradio as the only dependency still supporting
However, as time goes this driver list will grow and the risk of
Done.
would argue for a meta-layer :slight_smile:

Tom


Discuss-gnuradio mailing list
[email protected]
Discuss-gnuradio Info Page

rtl-sdr is just the device-driver library for RTL dongles. You need
gr-osmosdr as well.


Marcus L.
Principal Investigator
Shirleys Bay Radio Astronomy Consortium

On Mon, Jul 29, 2013 at 11:16 AM, Marcus D. Leech [email protected]
wrote:

Thanks for the report and all of the patches you submitted to PyBOMBS.

recommendations, my preference is to not include them as dependencies,
I can see that, especially since we have uhd as a dep for gnuradio,

rtl-sdr is just the device-driver library for RTL dongles. You need
gr-osmosdr as well.

The debate is whether or not to include rtl-sdr and uhd as
dependencies to gr-osmosdr.

Tom

On 07/29/2013 11:26 AM, Tom R. wrote:

The debate is whether or not to include rtl-sdr and uhd as
dependencies to gr-osmosdr.

Tom

I’ll just, um, just go crawl back into my cave, and perhaps increase the
caffeine dose…


Marcus L.
Principal Investigator
Shirleys Bay Radio Astronomy Consortium