Organising Many Packages

Assumptions

• Our software is organised in a number of separate packages.
• These are stored in one or more CVS repositories.

Requirements

• Should be able to check out and build an individual package - without having to check out and build the packages it depends on.
• Should be able to use header files and libraries from other packages in a simple consistent way.
• Should be able to make a ``release'' of a consistent set of packages for simple installation elsewhere.

ATLAS Approach

• Each package has its own separate directory structure in CVS for source code and control files (eg Makefiles etc).
• Each package is built and installed into a common area - this includes binary programs, libraries and header files.
• If you are working on a package, your checked out version should take precedence over the installed distribution.
• ATLAS has used tools (formerly SRT, in future CMT) to organise and formalise this process.
• To make this all work, some choices of organisation of the code and directory structure are required.