[news.eclipse.tools.buckminster] Re: P2 materializer and profiles

[Thomas Hallgren <thomas@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Carsten,

On 08/27/2009 03:24 PM, Carsten Reckord wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I use the P2 materializer to install additional features into an RCP
> product. While that works more or less okay, one flaw in that is that
> the P2 materializer does not update the profile of my product, and
> therefore the additional features do not show up in the product's
> "Installed Software" (and strangely enough, although they work fine,
> neither in the "Features" list).
The P2 materializer is not supposed to 'install' anything. It is used for populating a target platform which isn't 
really the same thing as a runtime. We deliberately bypass the install phase and use the collect phase of the P2 engine 
since the install phase would discard anything not suitable for the platform (os,ws,arch) described by the profile.

The reason you can make things functional in your product by installing into the same bundle pool as is used by the 
runtime is more an accident then a feature. It is not what the P2 materializer was designed to do.

> I worked my way through the P2Materializer class, looking for any hint
> at what's going on and if I understand correctly, it seems that only a
> temporary profile in the buckminster runtime is created for
> materialization and discarded afterwards.
>
> So my question is:
>
> - Would it be possible/feasible to enhance the P2Materializer with the
> option to update/create a profile in the target platform (and which)?
> - or alternatively, is there some p2 magic to update the profile after
> buckminster is through with the materialization?
That would require some kind of interaction with the director. I.e. Buckminster would find the features to install and 
then tell the director to perform the actual installation. Is that the use-case that you are after?

In general, the director is what you should use if you want to install things into a product. We ship a headless version 
of it on our download page. Would that be a solution for you?

> Best regards,
> Carsten
>
> PS: Thomas, should you read this, you asked me to open a couple of
> bugzillas
> (http://www.eclipse.org/newsportal/article.php?id=1271&group=eclipse.tools.buckminster#1271,
> http://www.eclipse.org/newsportal/article.php?id=1255&group=eclipse.tools.buckminster#1255)
> a few weeks ago. I didn't get around to it at the time because I was
> called away from my buckminster work to finish another project. I've
> seen that some work has been done on properties in the meantime, so I
> was wondering if I should still enter those...

The one concerning the NPE is covered already but I don't think there's a bugzilla about the local reader recognizing 
SCM meta-data.

Regards,
Thomas Hallgren