Re: [racket-users] Directory-specific installation of packages?

[James Geddes]

Alex, many thanks for the suggestions. 

I feel I’m putting too many obstacles in the way. (On the other hand, perhaps 
my situation is not so unusual.) I’m trying to make something work with as few 
barriers as possible, both for experienced (but non-Racket!) developers, and 
for Mac users who are still unsure about the command-line. 

> You can always create an executable (using "raco exe") and a distribution 
> (using "raco dist") which packs all dependencies in a single directory.  

This indeed was my original plan. But I worried about updates: `brew update` 
(or `raco pkg update`) are straightforward enough that people won’t balk. I 
think I can persuade people to do a one-off manual install process, but 
probably not repeated ones. 

In fact, as a first attempt I used homebrew to distribute an executable 
produced by `raco dist`. But to do this one has to go against the spirit of 
homebrew; and it’s therefore a pain to arrange.

> You could also provide a small shell script to update the PATH, which users 
> will have to run once for installation (I believe MacOS stores environment 
> variables in a plist?)

In the end, I went with the “please copy this shell command into a terminal” 
approach to have users set the PATH. Under MacOS, at least one mechanism to set 
the path is to create a file under /etc/paths.d/ whose contents are the 
required paths, so that’s what I did. (Paths set in one's bash config aren’t 
picked up by Mac GUI applications, not that that matters particularly in this 
case.) The only downside here is that the user needs to sudo the command. 

As I say, perhaps I’m just making up ad hoc objections, in which case I 
apologise. I’m reasonably happy with where I’ve ended up, though I remain 
hopeful that a more universal package manager will someday arise, perhaps along 
the lines of Nix (or Guix). 

Many thanks again,

James


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Re: [racket-users] Directory-specific installation of packages?

[Alex Harsanyi]

On Sunday, July 28, 2019 at 3:48:24 PM UTC+8, james.geddes wrote:
>
>
> My workaround is to tell my colleagues to use homebrew to install Racket; 
> then use `raco pkg` to install the app; and to specify `(define 
> racket-launcher-names …)` in the info.rkt file to make an executable.


> It’s a workaround because it requires an additional step beyond this: the 
> default location for such executables is not typically in one’s PATH, so my 
> users have to set the PATH. For most of them that’s fine, but for some it’s 
> not great. 
>

You can always create an executable (using "raco exe") and a distribution 
(using "raco dist") which packs all dependencies in a single directory.  
The resulting executable will be stand-alone and will contain all the 
Racket libraries, including any external packages you use, and will run on 
computers that don't have Racket installed.  You could even sign the 
resulting executable, if you have a developer certificate.

You could also provide a small shell script to update the PATH, which users 
will have to run once for installation (I believe MacOS stores environment 
variables in a plist?)

The only downside of this approach is that it does not provide a 
distribution mechanism.  But given that you write this program for your 
colleagues, you could just place the program on an internal network share 
and tell them to fetch it from there.

Alex.

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Re: [racket-users] Directory-specific installation of packages?

[Hendrik Boom]

On Sun, Jul 28, 2019 at 08:48:20AM +0100, James Geddes wrote:
> 
> In general, I now have the sense that there are OS-specific package managers, 
> and there are language-specific package managers, and they do not play nicely 
> with each other.

This is a real problem.  It's not clear what the solution needs to be.
Probably some recognition and adaptation on both sides.  It's 
complicated by the number of OS-dependent and language-dependent 
installers.

It will probably take a number of cooperative iterations of proposals, 
comments, amd try-outs with several OS's and several languages to get 
any kind of consensus solution.

-- hendrik

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Re: [racket-users] Directory-specific installation of packages?

[James Geddes]

Tom, Stephen,

Many thanks for the advice.

In the end, I gave up on a single homebrew-able install. I could not find a way 
to have homebrew manage an app I created in Racket. During the 
homebrew-controlled installation process, Racket’s package manager tries to 
download other Racket packages; and that fails because, as Tom noted, Racket’s 
package manger needs to write to somewhere that homebrew won’t let it.

Stephen, I think bottles are indeed the way to go — but homebrew will only make 
a bottle if you can in principle compile from source. I initially tried a 
version of your other suggestion: I made a distributable executable and then 
lied to homebrew and told it this was “source code”. But I felt bad about it!

My workaround is to tell my colleagues to use homebrew to install Racket; then 
use `raco pkg` to install the app; and to specify `(define 
racket-launcher-names …)` in the info.rkt file to make an executable. 

It’s a workaround because it requires an additional step beyond this: the 
default location for such executables is not typically in one’s PATH, so my 
users have to set the PATH. For most of them that’s fine, but for some it’s not 
great.

In general, I now have the sense that there are OS-specific package managers, 
and there are language-specific package managers, and they do not play nicely 
with each other.

Racket has such a great cross-platform story; it would be nice to have a good 
“distribute your own apps” story. 

(On the question of uptake of different languages, I wonder whether part of 
Excel’s appeal might be that it supports a model in which technically 
sophisticated “spreadsheet developers" can make spreadsheets for “spreadsheet 
users”, and then distribution is straightforward; and this is a space that most 
programming languages have not yet colonised.)

Many thanks again,

James





 



> On 23 Jul 2019, at 08:43, Tom Gillespie  wrote:
> 
> I have periodically investigated installing racket packages via gentoo in a 
> dev-racket/package way that matches how python packages are installed (a far 
> saner experience than any of python's native packaging tools). I always hit 
> roadblocks because raco wants to hit an sqlite database that is outside the 
> build sandbox. I usually attempt to do this via raco, but perhaps there are 
> other ways, which might apply in this case as well. If your colleagues just 
> need the compiled program and do not need the underlying code, why not use 
> raco exe and distribute the standalone binary? Best,
> Tom
> 
> On Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 12:17 AM Stephen De Gabrielle 
>  wrote:
> Hi James
> 
> Did you have any luck with using homebrew to package and distribute your 
> Racket program?
> 
> I thought Bottles might be the way to go but I’m not sure: 
> https://docs.brew.sh/Bottles
> 
> I have two ideas
> a) add installing racket from homebrew to a bash script that launches your 
> prog
> b) using the create executable function in DrRacket (or raco) to build a 
> stand-alone version that can be modified to distribute via homebrew
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> Stephen
> 
> PS I think this is a great idea that I’m sure others will use.
> 
> On Mon, 22 Jul 2019  at 14:05, James Geddes  wrote:
> Dear All,
> 
> For reasons (explained below, possibly foolish reasons) I am trying to do the 
> following:
> 
> 1. Have `raco pkg install` install a package X to a specific directory, 
> including, in the same directory, all of the dependencies of X, but excluding 
> those dependencies that are already present in the current installation's 
> collections; and
> 
> 2. Have `raco exe myprok.rkt` look in that custom directory for `(require X)`?
> 
> I tried the `--scope-dir` option to `raco pkg install` but that installed 
> what looks like the entire racket standard library (see below).  
> 
> Many thanks,
> 
> James
> 
> 
> 
> PS. What I'm /really/ trying to do is distribute a little command-line 
> programme that I wrote in Racket to my colleagues using the homebrew package 
> manager. My programme depends on the gregor library.
> 
> Most of my colleagues don't have Racket. Homebrew likes to compile from 
> source, so I will need to have homebrew download the dependencies I need for 
> compilation. But now, homebrew really doesn't like you to write outside a 
> very small set of directories during the installation process, and those 
> don't appear to include the standard Racket collections directories.
> 
> (I could well have misunderstood this. I don't understand at all how homebrew 
> interacts with language-specific package managers like raco, pip, cabal, and 
> so on. My sense is that the non-raco ones install dependencies in 
> project-specific directories and I suspect homebrew has specific support for 
> Python libraries.)
> 
> Anyway, my program depends on the gregor library, so I tried this:
> 
> $ raco pkg install --scope-dir tmp gregor-lib
> 
> $ ls tmp
> 
> 2d-lib pict-doc
> at-exp-lib pict-lib
> base 

Re: [racket-users] Directory-specific installation of packages?

[Tom Gillespie]

I have periodically investigated installing racket packages via gentoo in a
dev-racket/package way that matches how python packages are installed (a
far saner experience than any of python's native packaging tools). I always
hit roadblocks because raco wants to hit an sqlite database that is outside
the build sandbox. I usually attempt to do this via raco, but perhaps there
are other ways, which might apply in this case as well. If your colleagues
just need the compiled program and do not need the underlying code, why not
use raco exe and distribute the standalone binary? Best,
Tom

On Tue, Jul 23, 2019 at 12:17 AM Stephen De Gabrielle <
spdegabrie...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi James
>
> Did you have any luck with using homebrew to package and distribute your
> Racket program?
>
> I thought Bottles might be the way to go but I’m not sure:
> https://docs.brew.sh/Bottles
>
> I have two ideas
> a) add installing racket from homebrew to a bash script that launches your
> prog
> b) using the create executable function in DrRacket (or raco) to build a
> stand-alone version that can be modified to distribute via homebrew
>
> Kind regards
>
> Stephen
>
> PS I think this is a great idea that I’m sure others will use.
>
> On Mon, 22 Jul 2019  at 14:05, James Geddes 
> wrote:
>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> For reasons (explained below, possibly foolish reasons) I am trying to do
>> the following:
>>
>> 1. Have `raco pkg install` install a package X to a specific directory,
>> including, in the same directory, all of the dependencies of X, but
>> excluding those dependencies that are already present in the current
>> installation's collections; and
>>
>> 2. Have `raco exe myprok.rkt` look in that custom directory for `(require
>> X)`?
>>
>> I tried the `--scope-dir` option to `raco pkg install` but that installed
>> what looks like the entire racket standard library (see below).
>>
>> Many thanks,
>>
>> James
>>
>>
>>
>> PS. What I'm /really/ trying to do is distribute a little command-line
>> programme that I wrote in Racket to my colleagues using the homebrew
>> package manager. My programme depends on the gregor library.
>>
>> Most of my colleagues don't have Racket. Homebrew likes to compile from
>> source, so I will need to have homebrew download the dependencies I need
>> for compilation. But now, homebrew really doesn't like you to write outside
>> a very small set of directories during the installation process, and those
>> don't appear to include the standard Racket collections directories.
>>
>> (I could well have misunderstood this. I don't understand at all how
>> homebrew interacts with language-specific package managers like raco, pip,
>> cabal, and so on. My sense is that the non-raco ones install dependencies
>> in project-specific directories and I suspect homebrew has specific support
>> for Python libraries.)
>>
>> Anyway, my program depends on the gregor library, so I tried this:
>>
>> $ raco pkg install --scope-dir tmp gregor-lib
>>
>> $ ls tmp
>>
>> 2d-lib pict-doc
>> at-exp-lib pict-lib
>> base   pict-snip-lib
>> cext-lib   pkgs.rktd
>> class-iop-lib  plai-lib
>> cldr-bcp47 planet-doc
>> :
>> [ ~100 rows omitted]
>> :
>> net-docweb-server-doc
>> net-libweb-server-lib
>> option-contract-libwxme-lib
>> parser-tools-doc   xrepl
>> parser-tools-lib   xrepl-doc
>> pconvert-lib   xrepl-lib
>> pict   zo-lib
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
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>> "Racket Users" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
>> email to racket-users+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
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>> .
>>
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> 
>
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> 
> .
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Re: [racket-users] Directory-specific installation of packages?

[Stephen De Gabrielle]

Hi James

Did you have any luck with using homebrew to package and distribute your
Racket program?

I thought Bottles might be the way to go but I’m not sure:
https://docs.brew.sh/Bottles

I have two ideas
a) add installing racket from homebrew to a bash script that launches your
prog
b) using the create executable function in DrRacket (or raco) to build a
stand-alone version that can be modified to distribute via homebrew

Kind regards

Stephen

PS I think this is a great idea that I’m sure others will use.

On Mon, 22 Jul 2019  at 14:05, James Geddes  wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> For reasons (explained below, possibly foolish reasons) I am trying to do
> the following:
>
> 1. Have `raco pkg install` install a package X to a specific directory,
> including, in the same directory, all of the dependencies of X, but
> excluding those dependencies that are already present in the current
> installation's collections; and
>
> 2. Have `raco exe myprok.rkt` look in that custom directory for `(require
> X)`?
>
> I tried the `--scope-dir` option to `raco pkg install` but that installed
> what looks like the entire racket standard library (see below).
>
> Many thanks,
>
> James
>
>
>
> PS. What I'm /really/ trying to do is distribute a little command-line
> programme that I wrote in Racket to my colleagues using the homebrew
> package manager. My programme depends on the gregor library.
>
> Most of my colleagues don't have Racket. Homebrew likes to compile from
> source, so I will need to have homebrew download the dependencies I need
> for compilation. But now, homebrew really doesn't like you to write outside
> a very small set of directories during the installation process, and those
> don't appear to include the standard Racket collections directories.
>
> (I could well have misunderstood this. I don't understand at all how
> homebrew interacts with language-specific package managers like raco, pip,
> cabal, and so on. My sense is that the non-raco ones install dependencies
> in project-specific directories and I suspect homebrew has specific support
> for Python libraries.)
>
> Anyway, my program depends on the gregor library, so I tried this:
>
> $ raco pkg install --scope-dir tmp gregor-lib
>
> $ ls tmp
>
> 2d-lib pict-doc
> at-exp-lib pict-lib
> base   pict-snip-lib
> cext-lib   pkgs.rktd
> class-iop-lib  plai-lib
> cldr-bcp47 planet-doc
> :
> [ ~100 rows omitted]
> :
> net-docweb-server-doc
> net-libweb-server-lib
> option-contract-libwxme-lib
> parser-tools-doc   xrepl
> parser-tools-lib   xrepl-doc
> pconvert-lib   xrepl-lib
> pict   zo-lib
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
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> .
>
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[racket-users] Directory-specific installation of packages?

[James Geddes]

Dear All,

For reasons (explained below, possibly foolish reasons) I am trying to do the 
following:

1. Have `raco pkg install` install a package X to a specific directory, 
including, in the same directory, all of the dependencies of X, but excluding 
those dependencies that are already present in the current installation's 
collections; and

2. Have `raco exe myprok.rkt` look in that custom directory for `(require X)`?

I tried the `--scope-dir` option to `raco pkg install` but that installed what 
looks like the entire racket standard library (see below).  

Many thanks,

James



PS. What I'm /really/ trying to do is distribute a little command-line 
programme that I wrote in Racket to my colleagues using the homebrew package 
manager. My programme depends on the gregor library.

Most of my colleagues don't have Racket. Homebrew likes to compile from source, 
so I will need to have homebrew download the dependencies I need for 
compilation. But now, homebrew really doesn't like you to write outside a very 
small set of directories during the installation process, and those don't 
appear to include the standard Racket collections directories.

(I could well have misunderstood this. I don't understand at all how homebrew 
interacts with language-specific package managers like raco, pip, cabal, and so 
on. My sense is that the non-raco ones install dependencies in project-specific 
directories and I suspect homebrew has specific support for Python libraries.)

Anyway, my program depends on the gregor library, so I tried this:

$ raco pkg install --scope-dir tmp gregor-lib

$ ls tmp

2d-lib pict-doc
at-exp-lib pict-lib
base   pict-snip-lib
cext-lib   pkgs.rktd
class-iop-lib  plai-lib
cldr-bcp47 planet-doc
:
[ ~100 rows omitted]
:
net-docweb-server-doc
net-libweb-server-lib
option-contract-libwxme-lib
parser-tools-doc   xrepl
parser-tools-lib   xrepl-doc
pconvert-lib   xrepl-lib
pict   zo-lib






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