The developers of GNOME OS, a distribution for GNOME developers and testers, have announced a toolkit initiative to simplify testing experimental versions of software in distributions distributed as atomically updated monolithic system images. The GNOME OS Developer Tool Suite will enable the compilation, distribution, and testing of extensions for distributions delivered as system images. This toolkit will enable developers and testers to modify parts of the system and test their changes without compromising the monolithic nature of the system image, without using isolated containers, or disabling security mechanisms.
The toolkit includes the development of a graphical interface, "Test Center," for managing experimental changes to the system. An online repository will also be created for distributing experimental changes. Examples of such changes include the use of experimental versions of programs and system components in monolithic distributions.
It is noted that using Flatpak packages solves the problem of installing additional programs in monolithic distributions, but is not suitable for testing unstable versions of programs on the system due to the unnecessary complexity of working with test versions for regular users and the persistence of installed components on the system until they are manually removed. Test Center allows you to install experimental versions of applications via a link from the developer. Applications installed through Test Center are specifically marked as experimental in the system and are tied to the testing period, after which they are automatically removed.
Experimental system changes were implemented in the Test Center using the systemd-sysext toolkit, which is designed to create and install images with system extensions installed as overlays on top of the system. These overlays can be rolled back at any time, allowing the system to return to its original state after testing the changes.
In parallel, we are working with Flatpak developers to enable the installation of additional console utilities not included in the base system image. In its current form, Flatpak is focused on installing graphical programs and is ill-suited for distributing console applications.
Source: opennet.ru
