Hi Everyone,
I have been thinking about the creation of a tool similar to Ubuntu's
add-apt-repository,
allowing some automation of the repository adding process inside Arch Linux.
My thoughts at the moment would be to create a simple bash script (`repo-add`?)
that would
get the TXT record for the second command line argument.
For example, I could run:
repo-add packages.timg.ws
The script would then get the TXT record for packages.timg.ws. That TXT record
would point
to a .conf file that contains all of the configuration for the
"packages.timg.ws" repository.
That .conf file would be downloaded, and then placed into /etc/pacman.d
My thinking is that this command would set up the pacman configuration, and
check that
everything is OK. If the .conf file contains as a comment with the fingerprint
and location
of a public key, then `pacman-key` can additionally be automated, maybe showing
a message showing what the fingerprint is and that the gpg key downloaded from
the comment on the .conf file matches that of the public key.
Additionally, a .conf file from the TXT record could also suggest that packages
get
installed straight after the repo-add command has been ran.
If the second command is a URI, then either that file could be downloaded
(skipping the
"discovery" of a repository), or just the host could be extracted from the URI
allowing
the discovery to go back to the TXT record.
Having this command use the TXT record has two awesome advantages:
1. My site (eg, packges.timg.ws) could be hosted on a different server to where
the packages are.
2. No more copying & pasting a whole bunch of configuration to add a repository.
Example Run:
# repo-add packages.timg.ws
1. The script dig's the hostname that was entered as the second argument on the
script:
# dig TXT packages.timg.ws +short
"http://timg.ws/archlinux/repo/timgws.conf";
2. The .conf file is downloaded.
3. The GPG key shown in the .conf file is downloaded
4. Fingerprint matched, OK (here there would be a warning if the fingerprint of
key != fingerprint in conf)
5. Fingerprint shown, confirmation requested
6. conf added to pacman, if packages are suggested, show what they are, ask to
run pacman -Su <packages>
7. ???
8. Profit!
Please let me know your thoughts.
Tim
