tcDebRepository provides a Debian Package server from within TeamCity.
In the Debian Linux operating system (and derivatives like Ubuntu), software packages are installed by downloading them from a Debian Package Repository. The locations (URLs) of repositories are configured in /etc/apt/sources.list or a file named something.list placed in the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ directory. These entries will be referred to as "APT lines" because they are the configuration for the APT set of tools. These include, apt-get, aptitude, synaptic. The "APT Tools" hereafter will be referred to collectively as "APT".
A typical APT line entry looks like this:
deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian jessie main
This line is made up of the following space delimited tokens:
deb URL dist component
- deb : Tells APT to use this configuration for binary DEB package files. deb-src is also used for downloading source code packages, although tcDebRepository does not currently support deb-src
- URL : The base URL of the repository. APT expects a specific URL structure of which this is the root. For more details see RepositoryNotes.
- dist : The Debian distribution name. In the example above,
jessieis the Debian distribution name. - component : The component(s) that this repository serves. Typical values for component are:
main, stable, unstable, testing, experimental.
##What tcDebRepository provides
- A browsable repository of packages and package meta-data.
- A repository in the structure consumed by APT including a URL from which APT can download the packages.
- A processor which watches for build events and parses the list of artifacts, filters them and then publishes the package meta-data into matched repositories.
- A UI for creating, editing and removing repositories.
- A UI for creating, editing and removing the Artifact Filters that the processor uses for indexing packages.
The tcDebRepository plugin adds a new tab to the Edit Project screen entitled "Debian Repositories (1)" indicating how many repositories exist in the project.
A list of Repositories are shown for the current project, and parent projects. A repository is aligned to a project, because that determines who has permission to edit the repository configuration (PROJECT_EDIT permission), and which builds are available to be added to a repository.
New repositories can be created from this screen by clicking the Add new Repository button. A link to edit any existing repositories is also available (if the user has permission).
Once created, a repository needs to be configured with which builds to watch, and which artifacts to be filtered. This is done on the Edit Repository screen.
A repository can be renamed or reallocated to another project by clicking the Edit repository... link in the Actions menu. Repository names must be named uniquely across a TeamCity instance as they form part of the URL. Additionally, a repository name must only contain letters, numbers, underscores and hyphens. This is to avoid issues with URLs configured in the APT sources.list file.
A repository can be deleted by clicking the Delete repository... link in the Actions menu. Deleting a repository removes the repository configuration and index. It does not remove the actual TeamCity artifacts on disk.
There are links on the Edit Repository pages, and the Debian Repositories page (in the breadcrumb of the Edit page) to browse a repository.
Note: Debian Repositories are publically available. There is no authentication required to browse a repository or access its packages.
The /etc/apt/sources.list file needs to be modified on your Debian computer to include the APT line entry of the Debian Repository located on the TeamCity server. Alternatively, a new file created in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ named something like teamcity.list containing the APT line.
Browse your Debian Repository (see section prior to this). Navigate into dists/<dist_name>/<component_name> and the exact APT line to add is displayed to allow copy and paste. It will look similar to this following example:
deb http://teamcity.mycompany.com/app/debrepo/MyRepoName/ jessie main
Then run the following on the Debian machine:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get --force-yes install <package_name>
The --force-yes command tells Debian to trust unsigned packages from the repository. This is only applicable until version 1.1 of tcDebRepository plugin is released which will provide support for authenticated repositories. See this GitHub issue for an update. I simply ran out of time to implement that before the December 6th competition deadline.
The tcDebRepository plugin has been tested on TeamCity 8.1.5, 9.1.7, 10.0.2 on Oracle Java versions 8 or 7.
| TeamCity version | Java Version | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 10.0.2 | 1.8.0_65-b17 | All services and UI working correctly |
| 9.1.7 | 1.7.0_65-b17 | All services and UI working correctly |
| 8.1.5 | 1.7.0_65-b17 | All services working correctly. Repositories need to be manually edited* by editing .BuildServer/config/deb-repositories.xml on the server |
*I do intend to resolve UI issues on TC8 in future.
| Distro | Version | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Debian | wheezy | Packages install correctly when passing in --force-yes option |
| Debian | jessie | Packages install correctly when passing in --force-yes option |
| Ubuntu | precise | Packages install correctly when passing in --force-yes option |
| Ubuntu | wily | Packages install correctly when passing in --force-yes option |
| Ubuntu | xenial | Packages fail to install. Probably due to unsigned repository. To be resolved in tcDebRepository v1.1 |
| Ubuntu | zesty | Packages fail to install. Probably due to unsigned repository. To be resolved in tcDebRepository v1.1 |
There is a test project that builds a bunch of very simple DEB files
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Add the following build to TeamCity: https://github.com/tcplugins/tcDummyDeb.git
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Configure TeamCity to save the artifacts in
target/eg, target/ => dist
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Create a Debian Repository in TeamCity
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Add some Artifact Filters to your repository
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Run your build and watch the deb files appear in /app/debrepo/RepoName/dists/