Background
Python uses a built-in packaging system that allows packages to get installed in a specific folder called "site-packages", loaded at Python startup. Several installers exists for this. One of them being Python itself.
The Weave application we are building will be organized in two parts
- an .ini file used by the application to start up. It contains all the configuration needed by the weave server, like the location of the DB, etc.
- a .wsgi file used by Apache to run the application
- some Python packages. Right now just one called "weave.server"
Proposal
One simple way to release the weave server is to create a source distribution with all the packages and the ini file, for each version.
This distribution can be installed by the Ops using a distutils-compatible installer like Pip, or the built-in installer Python provides.
The ini file is installed in /etc/sync.ini and the packages in Python's site-packages, together with the .wsgi file.
Release process
Steps to prepare a release:
- run "python setup.py test" to check all tests pass - tag the version in HG - run "python setup.py sdist mozupload"
These steps create a .tar.gz release (done by "sdist") and is placed into a shared folder all servers can see (done by "mozupload".)
Installation
Steps to install a release on a server:
- run "pip install path/to/realase/WeaveServer1.1.4.tgz" - restart apache (or hot restart mode with apache)