Vagrant Installer Generators

This project builds installers for full-stack software builds for Vagrant. This allows us to distribute Vagrant as a single executable item which will install Ruby, RubyGems, Vagrant, etc. in an isolated environment already ready to run.

Current status: Production quality. This project has generated the installers and packages in use by Vagrant on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X since March, 2012.

How it Works (Technically)

The general steps are given below. Note that for specific platforms, there may be more steps involved but the basic idea is the same:

1. Create a directory to store a fully self-contained Vagrant install. On Linux, this is typically /tmp/vagrant-temp. Software built into this directory is placed in the embedded directory.
2. Build Ruby using only libraries in the isolated directory, and install into the embedded directory.
3. Build the Vagrant gem from source.
4. Install the Vagrant gem using the isolated Ruby.
5. Create a binary stub that simply proxies to the install Vagrant binary. This typically goes in /tmp/vagrant-temp/bin. The binary stub is responsible for making sure that only the embedded software is used.
6. Build an installer that simply copies the directory structure of the isolated directory to some installation location.

Building an Installer

Mac

Prerequisites

• Command Line Tools for Mac OS X
• Homebrew
• Puppet
• RubyGems
• Developer ID Setup with Keychain

Build

./run.sh ${REVISION} ${OUTPUT_DIRECTORY}

The resulting dmg will appear in the output directory.

Windows

Prerequisites

• Chef
• Git

Build

In an administrator console:

rake

The resulting msi will appear in the dist directory.