Serval OpenWRT package feed

Serval Project, March 2014

This repository is an OpenWRT package feed from the Serval Project. Everybody is free to use this feed to include Serval's mesh networking into their own OpenWRT project.

At present this feed only suports OpenWRT 12.09.

How to use this repository

When building OpenWRT 12.09, to put Serval packages into the list of selectable packages, add the following line to the OpenWRT feeds.conf file:

src-git serval git://github.com/servalproject/openwrt-packages.git;master

The name after the semicolon (such as master in the above example) is the name of the feed branch within this repository. You will need to choose the feed branch most appropriate for your situation (see below). If the branch name is ommitted, the default branch master is used.

This repository does not guarantee to provide stable Git SHA-1 references to any of its contents, because any branch may be rewritten using Git rebase at any time. The only references that are safe to use are the feed branch names (see below).

OpenWRT packages

This feed supplies the following packages for OpenWRT:

• serval-dna -- the Serval DNA daemon, see the Serval DNA OpenWRT build instructions

Feed branches

• master

  The default feed branch. Contains all the most recently publicly released or publicly announced versions of Serval packages for OpenWRT. This branch will generally only contain well tested or well supported versions of Serval packages, that will usually correspond to public releases of products, such as the Serval Mesh app for Android (see below) or the Serval Mesh Extender or the Commotion Wireless OpenBTS.

  Every change on this branch is announced publicly on the Serval Project Developers mailing list.

• development

  The development feed branch. Generally contains recent, unreleased, and potentially unstable (untested) Serval packages. This branch may get updated often and without notice. This feed branch is generally used by Serval's senior developers between releases to collaborate with developers in other organisations.

  Any questions or comments about this branch should be sent to the Serval Project Developers mailing list.

• batphone-X.Y (eg, batphone-0.91, batphone-1.0)

  These feed branches contain stable versions of Serval packages that are compatible with release X.Y of the Serval Mesh app for Android (a.k.a. “Batphone”). These feed branches are always based off the master feed branch, and are normally created at the end of the Serval Mesh release procedure.

  The Batphone feed branches give the community a simple way to add Serval mesh networking to their OpenWRT devices which is known to be compatible with a given release of the Serval Mesh app.

  The first commit in a Batphone feed branch is the branch's base on the master feed branch, which is normally the exact revision of Serval DNA that was included in the Serval Mesh release. From that point on, though, the feed branch may advance independently:

  • if a change is made to Serval DNA that only affects the Batphone app, then a new hotfix release of Serval Mesh is made but there is no need to make a new OpenWRT release of the serval-dna package,

  • if an exclusively OpenWRT issue is fixed in Serval DNA (eg, portability bug, resource usage, configuration), then a new revision of the serval-dna package can be released on all batphone-X.Y feed branches with which it is fully protocol compatible.

OpenWRT release procedure

The following examples all assume that:

• $HOME/src/serval-dna is a clone of the Serval DNA repository

• $HOME/src/openwrt-packages is a clone of this Serval OpenWRT package feed repository

• the environment has been set up with:

   export SERVAL_OPENWRT_PACKAGES_REPO="$HOME/src/openwrt-packages"
  

  (see the sp-openwrt-release documentation)

• Serval Tools have been installed, to provide the sp-openwrt-release utility

Case 1 - New development version of Serval DNA

Once a revision of Serval DNA has been shown to successfully compile and test on the OpenWRT platform, then it may be publicly released so that third parties may confidently use it in their own development efforts.

The following example releases the HEAD of a fictitious openwrt topic branch of the Serval DNA repository to the development feed branch, then commits and pushes the change in a single operation:

$ sp-openwrt-release --commit --push development ~/src/serval-dna=openwrt
...
$

Henceforward, that revision will be the one downloaded and compiled by everyone who has the following line in their OpenWRT feeds.conf file:

src-git serval git://github.com/servalproject/openwrt-packages.git;development

Case 2 - New release of Serval DNA

Whenever Serval DNA is publicly released, typically as part of a Serval product, the master feed branch is updated.

It is important to understand that every time Serval DNA is formally released to the public as part of a product, a new product release branch is created in the Serval DNA repository to identify the exact version of the source code that was released.

The following example releases the HEAD of the (hypothetical) product release branch called meshextender-release-0.5 to the master feed, and commits and pushes the change to GitHub in a single operation:

$ sp-openwrt-release --commit --push master ~/src/serval-dna=meshextender-release-0.5
...
$

Henceforward, that revision will be the one downloaded and compiled by everyone who has any of the following lines in their OpenWRT feeds.conf file:

src-git serval git://github.com/servalproject/openwrt-packages.git

or

src-git serval git://github.com/servalproject/openwrt-packages.git;master

So many branches! It can be confusing to work out what all these Git branches are for and what they all mean. In a nutshell:

• feed branches are in this repository, and are only relevant to OpenWRT. They are basically a mechanism for Serval to provide more than one feed of OpenWRT packages using a single Git repository;

• source code branches like “product branches”, “topic branches”, etc. are in the Serval DNA repository, and are used by developers to organise their work and maintain more than one version of the software at a time.

Case 3 - New release of Serval Mesh (Batphone)

In this example, a new version, X.Y, of the Serval Mesh app for Android (a.k.a. “Batphone”) is released. This case is really a specialisation of Case 2 above, specifically for the Batphone product.

It is important to understand that every time a new version of Batphone is released, the Serval Mesh release procedure creates a new product release branch in the Serval DNA repository, named batphone-release-X.Y. That source-code branch identifies the version of Serval DNA that was contained in the released Serval Mesh app. The HEAD of that branch that must now be released for OpenWRT, as follows:

1. The master feed's serval-dna package is updated:

   $ sp-openwrt-release --commit --push master ~/src/serval-dna=batphone-release-X.Y
   ...
   $
   

2. A new feed branch called batphone-X.Y is created, based off the master feed branch that was just updated in step 1:

   $ cd ~/src/openwrt-packages
   $ git checkout master
   Switched to branch 'master'
   Your branch is up-to-date with 'origin/master'.
   $ git branch batphone-X.Y
   $ git push origin batphone-X.Y
   Total 0 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
   To git@github.com:servalproject/openwrt-packages.git
    * [new branch]      batphone-X.Y -> batphone-X.Y
   $
   

Henceforward, everyone who has the following line in their OpenWRT feeds.conf file will get a version of Serval DNA which is fully compatible with release X.Y of the Serval Mesh app for Android:

src-git serval git://github.com/servalproject/openwrt-packages.git;batphone-X.Y

More information

• the Serval DNA build instructions for OpenWRT give an introduction to the OpenWRT build system and contain instructions for making OpenWRT releases of Serval DNA

• Serval Tools README has instructions for installing the sp-openwrt-release utility

• sp-openwrt-release documentation has more instructions for using the sp-openwrt-release utility

• the sp-openwrt-release script has some built-in help:

   $ sp-openwrt-release --help
  

• the Serval Mesh release procedure describes how the Serval Mesh app for Android (Batphone) is released, and references this README