DSYNTH(1)

NAME
dsynth - dports bulk builder utility

SYNOPSIS
dsynth [-dfghvxyDNPS] [-p profile] [-s n] [-m gb] [-M scale] directive [origins]
dsynth help

DESCRIPTION
The dsynth utility allows a user to build and maintain part or all of dports(7) locally. dsynth figures out the dependency topology of the dport(s) for you and is capable of building any number of ports concurrently based on the configuration parameters you supply. dsynth also detects changes made to the ports tree and rebuilds packages and anything that depends on those packages as needed.

dsynth is based on an application called synth(1) which was written by John Marino in Ada and served as the conceptual base for this program. dsynth is written in C and designed to be as portable as possible given a ports-style infrastructure.

Our recommended build topology is with a configuration as follows:

    [Global Configuration]
    profile_selected= LiveSystem
    [LiveSystem]
    Operating_system= DragonFly
    Directory_packages= /build/synth/live_packages
    Directory_repository= /build/synth/live_packages/All
    Directory_portsdir= /build/synth/dports
    Directory_options= /build/synth/options
    Directory_distfiles= /build/synth/distfiles
    Directory_buildbase= /build/synth/build
    Directory_logs= /build/synth/logs
    Directory_ccache= disabled
    Directory_system= /
    Package_suffix= .txz
    ; Meta_version= 2	(this is the default)
    ; Check_plist= false	(this is the default)
    ; Numa_setsize= 0	(this is the default. 0, 2, or 4)
    Number_of_builders= 8
    Max_jobs_per_builder= 8
    Display_with_ncurses= true

This places all major directories under /build/synth. If you want to use the same dports and the same distfiles as your base system, you can null-mount /usr/distfiles onto /build/synth/distfiles and /usr/dports onto /build/synth/dports with /etc/fstab entries as follows:

    # Device	Mountpoint		FStype	Options	Dump Pass#
    /usr/distfiles	/build/synth/distfiles	null	rw	0    0
    /usr/dports	/build/synth/dports	null	rw	0    0

Please set the number of builders and the maximum number of jobs per builder according to available system resources. Remember that the total load on the system can be as high as (builders x jobs), and at least 4x that value in processes. Systems are typically restricted by memory and CPU horsepower. Start conservative and ramp up according to what your system can handle. A good rule of thumb is to set workers to the number of CPU threads your machine has or to 1/2 the number of gigabytes of memory your system has, whichever is lower. Then set the jobs per worker to no more than the number of CPU threads your machine has.

dsynth has numerous features to manage machine load and swap usage to prevent a machine from being overloaded, allowing more workers to be configured than you might otherwise think is reasonable (which helps a lot when building the smaller ports). However, users running this program should be aware that very high loads and modest swap use are still likely to develop when building a large number of ports or when building very large ports like the Chromium browser. If the system is not dedicated to building packages you can reduce the impact to the rest of the system by running dsynth at nice +20 and also by reducing the number of workers and number of jobs per worker somewhat.

We recommend that a minimum of 64GB of SSD-based swap be configured, or twice as much swap as main memory, whichever is the higher value.

We recommend a minimum of 500GB of storage be configured in /build or wherever you have configured various directories. A full set of distfiles requires at least 120GB, a full dports including the git repo requires at least 1.5GB, and a full set of built packages requires at least 75GB. If using a filesystem such as HAMMER or HAMMER2 which frees space overnight, double all of those numbers.

The actual build infrastructure uses tmpfs(5) memory and swap, and does not use regular filesystem space.

OPTIONS

-d[d...]
    Run in debug mode. If specified two or more times this will turn off curses mode and output the primary log (00_last_results.log) to the standard output, along with additional spew.

-f  Force dangerous directives to run despite pkglist scan errors. Applies only to the purge-distfiles directive at the moment.

-g  Tells dsynth to null-mount the */dports/dragonfly subdirectory in addition to the */dports directory (used for the WITH_DPORTS option with make build-all). This allows the subdirectory to itself be a null-mount from /usr/src.

-h  Quickly output a synopsis of options and directives and exit.

-m gb
    Override the default package dependency memory target, in gigabytes. The default is 1/2 physical memory. The number of workers will be limited such that the aggregate size of package dependencies installed in each worker slot does not exceed this value.

    This handles a well-known effect where the sheer amount of data that has to be installed in tmpfs(5) filesystems for large ports, when multiplied by the number of worker slots, can force excessive paging to occur and leave preciously little memory available to actually run compiles. Some paging is necessary to maintain maximum CPU utilization, but excessive paging can cause the whole machine to essentially become idle for extended periods of time.

-M scale
    Override dynamic workers calculation by a specific scale factor. Specifying 1.0 leaves it unchanged, 0.8 will reduce the number of jobs by 20%, and 1.2 will increase the number of jobs by 20%. And so forth.

    This option may be specified in the range 0.01 to 99.0. Out of range values will simply be clipped.

-p profile
    Override the global profile default in /etc/dsynth/dsynth.ini, allowing you to trivially run whatever profile you like without having to edit the configuration file when switching. In addition, you can now run any number of dsynth's concurrently on the same machine without having to use a jail(8), each with a different profile, as long as the packages, repository, buildbase, and logs directories are different.

    Note that the distfiles directory can be shared and will not conflict or get confused with concurrent fetches.

-s n
    dsynth usually slow-starts the worker slots, beginning with one slot and increasing by one every 5 seconds until the maximum configured number of workers is reached. This gives dsynth a slower ramp that it can load manage against. Specifying 0 disables the slow-start feature and the maximum number of worker slots (limited by the dependency graph) will be loaded immediately.

-v  Quickly output the version and exit.

-x[x]
    Normally dsynth builds a package for any of the three reasons:

    1.  If the contents of the ports directory changes;
    2.  If anything the port depends on requires rebuilding so to will the port be rebuilt;
    3.  If there is no binary package already built for the port.

    If this option is specified, the first test is ignored. If this option is specified twice, the first and second tests are ignored.

-y  Automatically answer yes to any questions.

-D  Turn on developer mode (by setting the environment variable DEVELOPER to ‘yes’) when building ports.

-P  Include the check-plist stage. This is the default for the everything and test directives. This feature may also be turned on via the Check_plist option in the configuration file.

-S[S]
    Turn off curses mode for script friendliness. The output will be log 00 and should be redirected to /dev/null or something similar. If you supply the options twice, color output escapes will also be turned off. You may also wish to use the -y option for scripting dsynth.

-N  Normally dsynth nices its sub-processes to +10. This option disables the feature.

DIRECTIVES
Generally dsynth is run with a directive and some directives allow a list of ports to be specified. This list should be space-delimited in DIR/SUBDIR format, for example: www/chromium. For directives with an optional ports list, your current installed set of ports will be used if you do not specify a list. You may also specify a filename instead of a port to have dsynth read the ports list from a text file. Ports are specified by dports(7) directory and subdirectory, for example “www/chromium”.

init
    Creates and initializes the /etc/dsynth directory if it does not exist. This directive will complain and exit if either /etc/dsynth or /usr/local/etc/dsynth exists. It will not create /etc/dsynth in this situation.

status
    This will do a dry-run of upgrade-system but not actually build anything.

cleanup
    This will clean up any left-over mounts from prior builds. dsynth attempts to clean up all processes and mounts when you interrupt a build but doesn't always succeed.

configure
    NOT CURRENTLY IMPLEMENTED

fetch-only [ports/everything]
    Fetch all source distributions required to build the specified target. Specifying everything fetches all source distributions required to build the whole of dports(7).

    Any existing distfiles which do not match the expected signature will be re-fetched.

list-only [ports/everything]
    Generate a list of all likely build dependencies required to build the specified targets. The output is written to the file "build.txt"

upgrade-system
    NOT CURRENTLY IMPLEMENTED. Incrementally build and upgrade your locally installed packages, then upgrade your local system with them.

list-system
    Write a build list to the file build.txt. Do not build anything. This is typically used on your target system to generate a list for dsynth to use as a build list on another system.

prepare-system
    Incrementally build and upgrade your locally installed packages, but do not upgrade your system with them.

rebuild-repository
    Build or rebuild the database files for the configured repository.

purge-distfiles
    Delete any obsolete source distribution files. This directive fails if the pkglist scan has errors due to corrupt Makefile's or missing dependencies in the dports tree. The -f option may be used to force the purge to occur anyway. However, it may end up removing distfiles that you actually need and force them to be re-fetched later.

reset-db
    Delete ports_crc.db from the build directory. This database is used to detect changes made to the dports tree. It will be regenerated on your next build without forcing any packages to be rebuilt.

status-everything
    This will do a dry-run of a full bulk build of everything, but not actually build anything.

everything
    This will build the entire dports tree and then rebuild the repository when it finishes.

version
    This is for synth compatibility. The version of dsynth will be printed and the program will exit.

help
    Output a synopsis of options and directives and exit.

status [ports]
    Do a dry-run build directive for the given list.

add [ports]
    This directive may be used when the user wishes to add additional ports to an existing dsynth run without interrupting and restarting it. It can be useful when the user intends to leave dsynth unattended for a long period of time and does not wish to interrupt potentially very long builds that are already in progress.

    When dsynth completes the current run it will re-exec itself with the same primary directive along with all ports specified by any add directives made in the interim. dsynth will still rebuild the repository after the initial run if it would normally have done so, but if so it will do it without asking first. Only the last rebuild request will potentially be interactive.

    Note that interrupting or killing the running dsynth cleans out any ports that might have been added while it was running. This directive also has numerous exit/exec lock-file races and is intended to only be used manually by the user.

build [ports]
    Incrementally build dports based on the given list. When done, ask whether the repository should be rebuilt or not.

just-build [ports]
    Incrementally build dports based on the given list, then exits. No post-build steps will be taken.

install [ports]
    NOT CURRENTLY IMPLEMENTED. First run the build directive for the supplied list (or using currently installed packages), then rebuild the repository and upgrade the system without asking any further questions.

force [ports]
    This is the same as build directive but will delete existing packages first. Dependencies are not deleted unless they are out of date.

test [ports]
    This is the same as build directive but turns on the developer mode and pre-deletes specified packages. Dependencies are not deleted unless they are out of date.

debug [ports]
    This is the same as build directive but leaves the chroot mounts intact upon completion.

monitor [datfile]
    Monitors a running dsynth instance.

PER-PORT OPTIONS
The Directory_options configuration variable in /etc/dsynth/dsynth.ini points to the configured options directory tree. In the base system dports this would be /var/db/ports, but you can supply an independent set of ports options for your dsynth build if you like. The format of the structure in this directory is best described simply by cd'ing into a dport, say www/chromium, typing make config, and it will create a sub-directory and write out a file called /var/db/ports/www_chromium/options.

For dsynth you can either point your configuration variable to the system default, or you can point it at a dsynth-specific directory and copy the options to or construct the options in your dsynth-specific directory tree.

HOOKS
dsynth provides several hooks that trigger at specific stages during the package building process.

At the moment hooks are not configurable so the exact executable file is expected in the configuration directory with one of the names in the list below. Hooks are run via execve(2).

hook_run_start
    This hook triggers when the overall build process starts.

hook_run_end
    This hook is called when the overall build process ends.

hook_pkg_started
    This hook triggers when a port starts building.

hook_pkg_success
    For each successful port built this hook will trigger.

hook_pkg_failure
    This hook will trigger for each port that fails to build.

hook_pkg_ignored
    Each port that is marked as ignored will make this hook to trigger.

hook_pkg_skipped
    Each skipped port will trigger this hook.

A number of environment variables are available for hooks, always in the context of an ongoing build and within a specific configuration profile, unless overridden from the command-line. Some are only available for a specific hook.

PROFILE
    The configuration profile.

DIR_PACKAGES
    The packages base directory, i.e where index files are generated.

DIR_REPOSITORY
    The packages repository, where the actual package files are stored.

DIR_PORTS
    The ports directory.

DIR_OPTIONS
    The options directory.

DIR_DISTFILES
    The distfiles directory, where the distribution files are stored.

DIR_LOGS
    The logs directory, which is also where the HTML report is generated.

DIR_BUILDBASE
    The build base directory.

PORTS_QUEUED
    The number of ports queued to be built (only for hook_run_start).

PORTS_BUILT
    The number of successfully built ports (only for hook_run_end).

PORTS_FAILED
    The number of ports for which the build failed (only for hook_run_end).

PORTS_IGNORED
    The number of ports that where ignored and, hence, not built (only for hook_run_end).

PORTS_SKIPPED
    The number of ports that were skipped in the build (only for hook_run_end).

RESULT
    The result (started, success, failure, ignored, skipped) for the build of an individual port (only for hook_pkg_*).

ORIGIN
    The origin of a port (only for hook_pkg_*).

FLAVOR
    The flavor of a port (only for hook_pkg_*).

PKGNAME
    The port name (only for hook_pkg_*).

MISC

The default setting for Meta_version is now 2. You can override it with this configuration variable.

The default setting for Check_plist is false. You can override it with the -P option or by setting this configuration variable to true.

The default setting for Numa_setsize is 0, disabling any NUMA related CPU partitioning. This is the recommended setting as it allows the scheduler the freedom to maximize CPU utilization, particularly when doing incremental bulks. The only other values that have a decent chance of improving full bulk performance are 2 or 4. Any higher and CPU utilization will suffer from periods of high idle.

FILES
/etc/dsynth/dsynth.ini
    The primary configuration file. If not found, dsynth will also look in /usr/local/etc/dsynth/dsynth.ini.

/etc/dsynth/LiveSystem-make.conf
    Typically contains the environment variables that will be set in the workers. dsynth firewalls the environment it is run under from the environment it provides to the workers.

/build/synth/build
    Recommended setting for Directory_buildbase, contains the build infrastructure, typically a template, mirrored system directories, and mount points for all the worker slots. The template will be [re]generated if pkg(8) needs to be built or if the .template.good file in this directory is deleted.

/build/synth/distfiles
    Recommended setting for Directory_distfiles, ports to a directory into which dsynth will download any source distribution files required for building.

/build/synth/dports
    Recommended setting for Directory_portsdir, points to a checked out dports repo. Note that dsynth does not automatically git pull or otherwise synchronize the dports repo; you must do that yourself prior to starting a build.

/build/synth/live_packages
    Recommended setting for Directory_packages, points to a directory which will contain the completed application packages.

/build/synth/logs
    Recommended setting for Directory_logs, all log files will be placed in this directory. Special management logfiles begin with the numeral ‘0’ for easily location. The logfiles for ports while and after building are stored in the form subdir____portname.log, with three underscores.

/build/synth/options
    Recommended setting for Directory_options, where options overrides for specific ports may be located. Then either null-mount the system /var/db/ports to this location, or construct your own dsynth-specific options. See the PER-PORT OPTIONS section above for more information.

/   Recommended setting for Directory_system, which dsynth uses as a basis for creating the jails or chroots in each worker slot during building. No part of the system root is ever null-mounted read-write; it is always null-mounted read-only. Some elements from the system base will be mirrored in the build-base as an optimization.

    Note that the packages directory and the distfiles directory is mounted read-write in jails or chroots. All other r/w filesystems in the workers are tmpfs(5) based filesystems and will be created and torn-down for each port.

.txz
.tgz
.tar
.tbz
.tzst
    The recommended setting for Package_suffix is either .txz or .tgz. Use .txz for better compression at the cost of somewhat slower bulk builds due to the time overhead for compression and decompression, or use .tgz for modest compression and very fast compression and decompression. Due to the way the builder works, package dependencies are freshly installed into the chroot slot for each package being built, so decompression time matters.

EXIT STATUS

SEE ALSO
synth(1), build(7), dports(7)

HISTORY
The dsynth utility first appeared in DragonFly 5.7.

AUTHORS
Matthew Dillon <dillon@backplane.com>