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Webpage of Maneage: a framework for managing data lineage
Copyright (C) 2020, Pedram Ashofteh Ardakani <pedramardakani@pm.me>
Copyright (C) 2020, Mohammad Akhlaghi <mohammad@akhlaghi.org>
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<h1>Maneage</h1><h2>Managing Data Lineage</h2>
<p>Copyright © 2018-2020 Mohammad Akhlaghi <a href="mailto:mohammad@akhlaghi.org">mohammad@akhlaghi.org</a><br />
Copyright © 2020 Raul Infante-Sainz <a href="mailto:infantesainz@gmail.com">infantesainz@gmail.com</a><br />
<a href="#page-footer">License Conditions</a></p>
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<p align="right">Previous: <a href="about-tips.html">Tips for designing your project</a>, Up: <a href="about.html">About</a> </p>
<h2>Future improvements</h2>
<p>This is an evolving project and as time goes on, it will evolve and become
more robust. Some of the most prominent issues we plan to implement in the
future are listed below, please join us if you are interested.</p>
<h2>Package management</h2>
<p>It is important to have control of the environment of the project. Maneage
currently builds the higher-level programs (for example GNU Bash, GNU Make,
GNU AWK and domain-specific software) it needs, then sets <code>PATH</code> so the
analysis is done only with the project's built software. But currently the
configuration of each program is in the Makefile rules that build it. This
is not good because a change in the build configuration does not
automatically cause a re-build. Also, each separate project on a system
needs to have its own built tools (that can waste a lot of space).</p>
<p>A good solution is based on the <a href="https://nixos.org/nix/about.html">Nix package manager</a>: a separate file is present for
each software, containing all the necessary info to build it (including its
URL, its tarball MD5 hash, dependencies, configuration parameters, build
steps and etc). Using this file, a script can automatically generate the
Make rules to download, build and install program and its dependencies
(along with the dependencies of those dependencies and etc).</p>
<p>All the software are installed in a "store". Each installed file (library
or executable) is prefixed by a hash of this configuration (and the OS
architecture) and the standard program name. For example (from the Nix
webpage):</p>
<pre><code>/nix/store/b6gvzjyb2pg0kjfwrjmg1vfhh54ad73z-firefox-33.1/</code></pre>
<p>The important thing is that the "store" is <em>not</em> in the project's search
path. After the complete installation of the software, symbolic links are
made to populate each project's program and library search paths without a
hash. This hash will be unique to that particular software and its
particular configuration. So simply by searching for this hash in the
installed directory, we can find the installed files of that software to
generate the links.</p>
<p>This scenario has several advantages: 1) a change in a software's build
configuration triggers a rebuild. 2) a single "store" can be used in many
projects, thus saving space and configuration time for new projects (that
commonly have large overlaps in lower-level programs).</p>
<p align="right">Previous: <a href="about-tips.html">Tips for designing your project</a>, Up: <a href="about.html">About</a> </p>
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<ul>
<li><p>Maneage is currently based in the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC).</p></li>
<li><p>Address: IAC, Calle Vía Láctea, s/n, E38205 - La Laguna (Tenerife), Spain.</p></li>
<li><p>Contact: with <a href="https://savannah.nongnu.org/support/?func=additem&group=reproduce">this form</a>, or project PI (<a href="http://akhlaghi.org">Mohammad Akhlaghi</a>).</p></li>
<li><p>Copyright © 2020 Maneage volunteers</p></li>
<li>This page is distributed under GNU General Public License (<a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html">GPL</a>).</li>
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