Uploading Packages to cygwin.com

This page documents how package maintainers can upload packages to cygwin.com, after they have provided an SSH key.

Uploading packages using cygport

If you have a cygport build script for your packages, you can upload your finished packages using cygport up, e.g.:

    cygport pkg.cygport up

calm will scan the upload directories for packages that are ready, verify them, and, if there are no errors, move the packages into the real release area. New directories in the release area will be created as needed. If there are errors then setup.ini will not be updated and the release area will remain unchanged.

Getting reports

The !email file in the root of your upload directory contains a list of email address (one per line) where any calm reports on your packages should be sent. This file is initially created containing the email address from which the SSH key was sent.

If this file is empty or missing, you won't get email when calm finds issues with what was uploaded.

For historical reasons, this file can also be named !mail.

Removing the test label from a package

Package maintainers can promote their own packages from test to current using:

    ssh cygwin@cygwin.com untest package-version-release

Historical alternatives were:

• Ask on the #cygwin-developers IRC channel, or the cygwin-apps mailing list, for the package to be untest-ed.
• If you still have the cygport build directory from when you built the test packages, you can amend all the .hint files under PVR.arch/dist/ to remove the test: line, and cygport upload again.
• The package can be rebuilt with a bumped release number, and without using cygport package-test (although this should be a last resort, because unless the build is reproducible, this invalidates some of the testing your package has received).

Removing files from the Cygwin distribution

Removing files is not normally needed, as old versions (as determined by the package expiry settings, which can be configured with keep*: lines in override.hint) will be removed automatically.

However, if you do need to remove file(s) from the distribution:

• ssh cygwin@cygwin.com vault sourcepackage-version-release requests the removal of the given source package, and all install packages derived from it,
  or
• upload an empty file with the name of the file that you want deleted, prefixed with a "-", in the same directory as the file that you want deleted.

  For example, if you want to delete the file foo-1.2-1.tar.xz then upload an empty file named -foo-1.2-1.tar.xz

Note that this will not cause setup to automatically downgrade to the previous version of foo, if foo-1.2-1 was installed before it was removed. If a superseding version does not (yet) exist, downgrading can be configured by using a replace-versions: line in override.hint.

Note that files are not actually deleted; they are moved to a vault. Current policy is to retain those files indefinitely to ensure we are able to comply with our GPL obligation to provide sources for binaries we have previously distributed.

Uploading packages manually

You may also upload files directly, using an sftp client such as sftp or lftp. An upload directory on cygwin.com will look like this:

       Your Name                          # directory is currently your full name (you won't actually see this)
        x86_64    noarch                  # arch directory
         release   release                # release directory
          pkg                             # package directory
           pkg-debuginfo                  # package subdirectories

Example using lftp to upload packages:

    % lftp sftp://cygwin@cygwin.com
    cd ok, cwd=/

    lftp cygwin.com:/> ls
    drwxrwsr-x   4 root     cygstage     4096 Sep  1 05:16 .
    drwxrwxr-x  61 cygwin   root         4096 Sep  1 05:12 ..
    drwxrwsr-x.  3 cygwin   cygstage     4096 May  9 19:00 noarch
    drwxrwsr-x   3 cygwin   cygstage     4096 Aug 10 19:04 x86_64

    lftp cygwin.com:/> cd x86_64/release
    cd ok, cwd=/x86_64/release

    lftp cygwin.com:/x86_64/release> ls
    drwxrwsr-x   3 cygwin   cygstage     4096 Oct 12 18:28 .
    drwxrwsr-x   3 cygwin   cygstage     4096 Oct 12 19:35 ..
    drwxrwsr-x   3 cygwin   cygstage     4096 Oct 12 19:36 grep

    lftp cygwin.com:/x86_64/release> mirror -eR grep
    Total: 2 directories, 3 files, 0 symlinks
    New: 3 files, 0 symlinks
    2311396 bytes transferred in 14 seconds (166.2K/s)

    lftp cygwin.com:/x86_64/release> ls grep
    drwxrwsr-x   3 cygwin   cygstage     4096 Oct 12 19:47 .
    drwxrwsr-x   3 cygwin   cygstage     4096 Oct 12 18:28 ..
    -rw-r--r--   1 cygwin   cygstage      356 Oct 12 19:47 grep-2.14-3.hint
    -rw-r--r--   1 cygwin   cygstage   229284 Oct 12 19:47 grep-2.14-3.tar.xz
    -rw-r--r--   1 cygwin   cygstage  1204708 Oct 12 19:46 grep-2.14-3-src.tar.xz
    drwxrwsr-x   2 cygwin   cygstage     4096 Oct 12 19:47 grep-debuginfo

    lftp cygwin.com:/x86_64/release> ls grep/grep-debuginfo
    drwxrwsr-x   2 cygwin   cygstage     4096 Oct 12 19:47 .
    drwxrwsr-x   3 cygwin   cygstage     4096 Oct 12 19:47 ..
    -rw-r--r--   1 cygwin   cygstage      356 Oct 12 19:47 grep-debuginfo-2.14-3.hint
    -rw-r--r--   1 cygwin   cygstage   877404 Oct 12 19:47 grep-debuginfo-2.14-3.tar.xz

    lftp cygwin.com:/x86_64/release> put /dev/null -o !ready

Example lftp upload command line

    # command line to upload the time packages
    cd wherever
    lftp -c 'connect sftp://cygwin@cygwin.com/; cd x86_64/release; mirror -eR time; put /dev/null -o !ready'

The package directories should exactly mirror what is currently in the release directory. So, it should be a hierarchy containing .tar.xz files and .hint files.

The !ready file is used to tell calm (the script which creates setup.ini) that any files older than this file in or under the given directory should be processed. The intent is that you create !ready when you have finished uploading everything that you plan on uploading.

Note: !ready files should not be created in the root of your upload directory, i.e. they should be in the architecture directories x86_64 and noarch or in the package directories themselves.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q) Why can't I login via sftp?

A) There are two likely reasons for login failures:

1. You're not using the SSH key provided when you set up your account.
2. You are not logging in as the cygwin user. You need to login as user cygwin with no password.

Q) I don't understand the errors in an emailed calm upload report!

A) Ask on the cygwin-apps mailing list, or the #cygwin-developers IRC channel.