Hello Continuing my investigation of Processor mechanism for feature definitions (a.k.a. "better overrides")[1], I want to give you insight to what I plan to change in Karaf's FeatureService.
Currently we have two separate mechanisms: "blacklisting": - may remove bundles from feature at features XML load time - may remove features from repository at features XML load time - may skip adding/analyzing features XML at karaf-maven-plugin:assembly invocation time - doesn't prevent given features XML to be added later - clears runtime information about blacklisted features/bundles - we can't query for blacklisted features or see (in `feature:list`) which features were blacklisted "overrides": - may replace G:A:V of some bundle with another G:A:V2 when downloading bundles of a feature - doesn't allow to change G:A:V into different G2:A2:V2 (e.g., "mvn:org.eclipse.jetty.orbit/javax.servlet/3.0.0.v201112011016" → "mvn:org.apache.geronimo.specs/geronimo-servlet_3.0_spec/1.0") - doesn't allow to change "dependency" flag on given bundle - doesn't allow to add bundles to a feature (assuming we "know better" than original feature's author - but it's a problem more often than we'd want) What I'm working on (till you tell me we don't need it), is better separation of concerns. I assume that feature XML files are loaded in one place (JAXB) and then may be further processed (which involves blacklisting, overriding and altering of entire features) before they're actually used by FeaturesService. Currently org.apache.karaf.features.internal.service.RepositoryCache class holds JAXB model and uses org.apache.karaf.features.internal.service.Blacklist class to alter (to some degree) it. I want to integrate "Blacklist" class into more generic org.apache.karaf.features.internal.service.FeaturesProcessor interface. Repository, Feature and BundleInfo classes will have "isBlacklisted()" method for diagnostic purposes. Blacklisted items are not simply removed, but can't be used to alter runtime (State). I want to be as much consistent between FeaturesService (dynamic aspect) and karaf-maven-plugin:assembly (static aspect) as possible. Maven goal's configuration will be used to generate special (new?) file in etc/ of the distro and then used at runtime. As the area I'm playing with is very fragile, it's slower (than I want) process. I'll continue my work, but I welcome any comments if I attempt something silly. regards Grzegorz Grzybek === [1]: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/KARAF-5376
