Re: RFC: a plugin architecture for git extensions?

From: Jon Seymour <jon.seymour@gmail.com>
Date: Apr 27, 2011, 08:40 UTC
Message-ID: <BANLkTik8+ECdRsq19xUi1HzTnKoayvLOSw@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <BANLkTinrU8LhA0RORde0e5a1TM5VB5gVNQ@mail.gmail.com>

On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 6:15 PM, Jon Seymour <jon.seymour@gmail.com> wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

> On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 5:57 PM, Michael J Gruber
> <git@drmicha.warpmail.net> wrote:
>
> I also want to avoid baking in any too many decisions about things
> like registries and distribution models. That can come later.

Ok, may be some thoughts about a registry, at least to set a direction...

I like the way brew on MAC OSX uses git to manage formulas managed in a git repo.

The idea would be to maintain a registry of "git package descriptors". The descriptors would be a copy of the whatever descriptor an activated package would be described by, but probably simply a git config text file, since we already have the tools to parse those.

Such a descriptor would have hints about how to use a real package manager to get the actual package, but would not actually contain any files from the package itself.

So, for example, the package source might be bundled in git-core contrib/ directory, fetchable as a git repo, fetchable as a tar ball, fetchable as an apt-get package, as brew package etc. The idea is that gpm would know enough about invoking a real package manager to handle the actual distribution details.

Once the package is installed by gpm, it is then subject to the local activation process.

jon.