debimg - Alternative debian-cd in Python

(This page is mainly a mirror of the Wiki page)

debimg is an alternative to debian-cd, written in Python and released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 3 or (at your option) any later version.

debimg does not have Super Cow Powers, but Super Penguin Powers.

What is different to deb-imgs-gen?

debimg has a much newer codebase. It is released under the GNU GPL version 3 or (at your option) any later version.

It is designed on top of the apt package and uses python where possible:

• Use the apt dependency resolver instead of coding something
• Use apt methods to download all the files (including kernel, packages, etc.)
  • Local files are not hardlinked yet
• No external calls: The only program called is genisoimage

debimg also uses 822-like data files, see data/lenny.list in the source. This format saves space and should be faster, because it can be parsed by apt_pkg.ParseTagFile() and only one file needs to be opened instead of multiple ones.

Get it

• The first release can be found at: http://users.alioth.debian.org/~jak-guest/debimg_0.0.1.tar.gz
• The source is available in the git repo at git://git.debian.org/git/users/jak-guest/debimg.git
• You can browse it in gitweb: http://git.debian.org/?p=users/jak-guest/debimg.git

What is working?

• Creation of netinst disks for Lenny, though a few files are missing (see link below for daily-build images)

What needs to be done?

• Add documentation and other stuff
• Support architectures other than i386 and amd64
• Support creation of full sets (requires improved logic in libdebimg.packages)
  • Sorting code already exists, but has not been committed.
• Cleanup the configuration file
  • Move some variables into their own section, e.g. DI_* variables
  • Rename some variables (e.g MIRROR to Mirror, MEDIATYPE => MediaType)
• Create a Debian package
  • Requires changes in code to accept /etc/debimg.cfg and more
  • Requires changes to setup.py to install data files
  • The contents of debian/ are not committed yet, but available
• Speed improvements
  • Hardlink local files instead of fetching with apt

Links

• daily-built images: http://jak-linux.org/cdimage/daily-builds/
• the initial announcement: http://lists.debian.org/debian-cd/2008/02/msg00034.html
• the 0.0.1 release announcement: http://lists.debian.org/debian-cd/2008/03/msg00021.html
• the ITP bug: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=470212
• Blog: http://juliank.wordpress.com/2008/02/25/debimg-debian-cd-in-python/
• Wiki: http://wiki.debian.org/DebImg