addon

Meilix uses Travis to build and then make a github release of the ISO. There are packages that get built in the script executed by Travis.

What problem it is solving? It’s the need of apt-get update which are:

• Update of the system to support for the newest builds.
• Adding of the repo after adding a Personal Package Archives (‘PPAs’)

By default, Travis disabled apt-get update for every build. So if we want to run it automatically for each build, we can do it in two different ways.

Way 1:Running apt-get update in before_install step.

Implementation in .travis.yml of Meilix

print 'hello world!'
sudo: required

before_install:
  - apt-get update

We already used sudo so there is no need to use sudo in the apt-get update.

This is the most simplistic approach and it update the system packages and source list before installing any packages.

Way 2: executing apt-get update in Travis through APT addon.

The addon comes under the include step and the lint follows this order:

include:
  - os: linux
    addons:
      apt:
        update: true
        sources:
          - ubuntu-toolchain-r-test
        packages:
          - debootstrap
          - genisoimage
          - p7zip-full
          - squashfs-tools
          - ubuntu-dev-tools
          - dpkg-dev
          - debhelper
          - fakeroot
          - devscripts

This is helpful in case when we don’t have the before_install step. Additionally, it allows us to specify the packages we need to install.

Choosing between the two options

One can adopt any of the above process to implement apt-update in Travis.

Meilix uses the second approach as because we don’t have before_install parameter.

Sometimes we need some commands to get executed before updating the system, so in that case we prefer before_install to prioritize the tasks.

Resources:

• Travis lint

• Travis installing dependencies

• Ubuntu LaunchPad – Personal Package Archives (‘PPAs’)