Hi Yufei, Refreshing this discussion a bit.
To recap my overall thinking: I believe merging the Admin Tool and the Server in terms of distribution artifacts is a good idea. As you noted it will simplify license management and the binary distribution. However, LICENSE changes in [3340] seem to require additional review and adjustments as Robert noted. In terms of source module layout, as I commented in [3340], I believe it is still worth keeping the `runtime/admin` directory in the source tree, build a jar from it, but not a Quarkus application. Then the jar will be included into the Quarkus build under `runtime/server`. The dir name `runtime/admin` might not be true to the "runtime" claim after this refactoring, but I guess we can rename it (while still keeping it as a separate source module) after it gets integrated into the server. This is just to reduce the PR complexity. WDYT? [3340] https://github.com/apache/polaris/pull/3340 Thanks, Dmitri. On Tue, Dec 30, 2025 at 6:12 PM Yufei Gu <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi folks, > > I would like to start a discussion on simplifying modules polaris-admin > into polaris-server. The separate admin module has been a recurring source > of friction. It effectively doubles license checks, Docker image > publishing, and binary publishing(almost double the size of the binary > distribution due to most libs being shared), and it also forces additional > shared modules like common, test-common, and distribution(there is no need > to have a separate distribution module if there is only one quarkus-run > jar). Over time this has increased build, release, and maintenance > complexity with minor benefits. > > One alternative worth considering is moving toward a single runtime module > that supports both server and administrative CLI operations. Many mature > OSS projects follow this model successfully. For example, Apache Spark > ships a single set of core artifacts, and multiple CLI tools such as spark > submit, spark shell, and spark sql are essentially thin wrappers that point > to the same underlying jars. This keeps the distribution simple while still > allowing clear separation between interactive, batch, and administrative > workflows. > > Here are the initial discussions, > https://github.com/apache/polaris/pull/3281#discussion_r2652055703. Thanks > Dmitri for the detailed explanation and discussion. > > Here is a POC(https://github.com/apache/polaris/pull/3340), which verified > that both model works in a single jar: > Server Mode: > java -jar runtime/server/build/quarkus-app/quarkus-run.jar > > CLI Mode: > java -jar runtime/server/build/quarkus-app/quarkus-run.jar --help > java -jar runtime/server/build/quarkus-app/quarkus-run.jar bootstrap > --help > > Thanks, > Yufei >
