André Guerreiro presented the Gumby project, a native Linux GUI application to visualize and explore package dependencies. Gumby is built on top of APT and uses Graphviz to layout dependency graphs. It aims to provide a more intuitive way to view all types of package dependencies than existing command line tools. Guerreiro demonstrated Gumby and discussed plans to improve features like version selection and support for different dependency types. The goal is to bring more attention to visualization of Linux package management.

1. Energia Open Source
Gumby - Package dependency visualization
for Linux
André Guerreiro
andre.guerreiro@caixamagica.pt
6th February 2011
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2. Energia Open Source
Structure of the talk
1. About me
2. Linux packaging landscape
3. Gumby – the project
4. Technical design, features and shortcomings
5. Demo
6. Conclusions
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About me
André Guerreiro
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Portugal, 25 yrs old
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Linux user and advocate for 6/7 years
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Caixa Mágica developer and researcher
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Maintainer of CM packaging tools for last two releases
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MANCOOSI project involvement
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Caixa Mágica (shameless plug)
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10 Year History, based in Portugal
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Desktop focus
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Linux Deployment Projects on big educational projects
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Big news (not so fresh by now): we're switching to a Debian
base
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Caixa Mágica Software – the company
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Linux Packaging (Levelling the playing field)
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A Linux distribution is a big component system (> 15000
packages)
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A Package consists of:
Software + Meta-data + Configuration Scripts
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Meta-data example:
firefox, version 3.6.2 (...)
Requires: xulrunner >= 1.9.2.11, libsqlite >= 3.7 ...
Provides: webclient
Conflicts: sqlite < 3.0
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InfoViz in current tools
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Aptitude
- Very limited visualization
(ncurses interface for
advanced users/ sysadmins)
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Debtree
- The main usecase is to pipe
the output into a Graphviz tool
e.g.:
debtree firefox | dot -Tpng -Ofirefox-deps.png
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7. Energia Open Source
Introducing Gumby
Initial goals
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Native Linux GUI Application
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Distribution-agnostic as much as possible
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Some kind of integration with the system GUI package
manager (Synaptic initially...)
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To Visualize and explore package dependencies in an
interesting way
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Technical Design
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Built on top of APT – quite popular meta-installer used in
Debian, Ubuntu, Caixa Mágica.
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Graph Layout depends on Graphviz
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Architecture diagram
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Features
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Visualize all kinds of dependencies (requires, provides,
conflicts, obsoletes)
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Progressive Exploration
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Compact Mode
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Zoom & pan
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Different Layout schemes (powered by Graphviz)
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Demo
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Roadmap / TODO List
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Choosing a specific version of a package
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Better support for Debian-style dependencies:
suggests/recommends, disjunctive deps (Pkg A requires B | C)
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Improve the visual representation (transitions, collapse nodes)
A possible long term vision for gumby would be to integrate
the visualization in a graphical installation tool
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Wrapping up
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This should be considered as a proposal for the Linux distro
community to offer some attention to a neglected area
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Gumby is still a crude prototype but the first step is always
the hardest...
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I'm open for suggestions and criticism
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One final detail, where is the code?
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http://people.caixamagica.pt/aguerreiro/gumby
or
http://bit.ly/hzMKHF
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Git repository :
http://gitorious.org/cairo-graphs/gumby
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Thanks for your attention
Questions?
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