Debians management for deployment on the physical robots

This page describes the steps to deploy FSW Debian packages on the server.

The Debian are deploy in 3 phases:

1. Build the Debian package (freeflyer or freeflyer_avionics)
2. Stage the package on volar
3. Create a new Debian snapshot on the astrobee server

Steps 2 and 3 are similar for any Debian update Step 1 is slightly different for freeflyer or freeflyer_avionics.

Setup:

export FF_AVIONICS=<path_to_your_avionics_repository>

More information on how Astrobee is using aptly is described in: ../scripts/setup/Debians/mirror/README.md "Debians mirror documentation"

Build Freeflyer Debian

Your environment needs to be configured properly to cross-compile Astrobee Robot Software for the armhf architecture: see NASA Install documentation

Creating a release

Please see the flight release documentation for informationon how to create a release and update the release version.

Create the Debian package

./scripts/build/build_debian.sh

Build Avionics Debian

The avionics Debian is build separatly from the freeflyer Debian because it does not rely on the same toolchain, follow a different release schedule and is not yet open source.

Update changelog

cd $FF_AVIONICS
dch -v <version.number> -c debian/changelog

Push the new changelog

git commit -m"meaningful message" debian/changelog
git push

Create the Debian package

./tools/build_debian.sh
# answer y/n when the prompt ask about Harmony install

Common steps: staging and snapshoting

Stage the Debian on volar

cd ..
export ASTROBEE_DEBIAN_DIR=/home/p-free-flyer/free-flyer/FSW/ars_debs/dists/xenial/main
scp astrobee-avionics_<version>_*.deb \
  <ndc_username>@volar:$ASTROBEE_DEBIAN_DIR/binary-armhf

Update the Debian mirror on volar

ssh volar
cd /home/p-free-flyer/free-flyer/FSW/aptly/scripts
./update_astrobee_debians.sh

Warnings [!] will be displayed for the existing packages, but the new generated debian should be listed with a [+].

Sign the Debian

This step is only required if you do not already have imported the key to sign the Debians. This step requires to have access to the private key maintained by Brian Coltin.

Master key owner:

gpg --export-secret-key

New user:

gpg --import ~bcoltin/secret.key

Master key owner deletes secret.key

Push Debian to the server

./publish_snapshot.sh <snapshot_date_and_tag>

Convention for the argument: follow this example 20180702_pre-dock-flight-release. Input the Master Password when asked (twice).

Build FSW dependencies Debians packages

When a FSW dependecy is changed, it is necessary to rebuild the Debian packages:

./scripts/setup/debians/build_install_debians.sh

Then, follow the common step above to stage the Debian packages on volar and create the snapshot on the server.