file locations for ardupilot on Linux

[Randy Mackay]

We discussed where things should be put on linux boards and this is what I captured from that discussion.

 

Parameters: /etc/ardupilot/ardupilot.conf

                         /etc/ardupilot/copter/defaults.parm OR /etc/ardupilot/defaults/copter/

Binaries: /usr/bin/arducopter

Local builds: /usr/local/bin/arducopter

Dataflash logs: /var/ardupilot/logs/1.BIN

Pictures: /var/ardupilot/images

Loadable Modules:/etc/ardupilot/modules.d/*.so

 

Note: our virtual eeprom stores data in “/var/APM/ArduCopter.stg” and we should consider moving this to “/var/ardupilot/ArduCopter.stg” or “/var/ardupilot/arducopter.stg”

 

-Randy

[Víctor MV]

+1 for this. Thanks Randy for bringing it up.

[Ramon Roche]

+1

Should we move the Pictures path to a more standardized location on user space? /home/user/(media|pictures|photos|images)/ardupilot, or make this path configurable through ardupilot.conf

And while on topic, should we also take the time to standardize on a file naming convention using lowercase?, or at least not mixing CamelCase with lowercase or any other formatting

On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 7:07 AM, Víctor MV <v.may...@gmail.com> wrote:

+1 for this. Thanks Randy for bringing it up.

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Ramón Roche

[Lucas De Marchi]

Hi Ramon,

On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 2:21 PM, Ramon Roche <mrp...@gmail.com> wrote:
> +1
>
> Should we move the Pictures path to a more standardized location on user
> space? /home/user/(media|pictures|photos|images)/ardupilot, or make this
> path configurable through ardupilot.conf

The idea of this standardization we are talking about is to be more
similar to "normal" programs running on Linux. In this sense ardupilot
is a daemon started during boot. These usually don't save data on the
user directory, but rather use /var (think for example the apache web
server, sshd, bluetoothd, etc.

So, if the images/video are being generated by ardupilot (right now
they aren't), then we would save them on /var/ardupilot/images,
/var/ardupilot/video, etc.
If it's another program saving the images, video, then they can save
wherever they want.

One thing we could do to allow ardupilot to save to a certain user
directory rather than system directory is to have an entry in the
configuration file allowing to set the base data directory as you
suggest.

> And while on topic, should we also take the time to standardize on a file
> naming convention using lowercase?, or at least not mixing CamelCase with
> lowercase or any other formatting

We are preferring to use lowercase. This includes the binary name:
arducopter, arduplane, etc and installed on /usr/bin

Lucas De Marchi

[Al B]

Wiki pages will have to be updated then.  e.g. Building-for-navio-on-rpi2 suggests to copy the .elf file under /opt/apm/bin/ and the logs are currently generated under /var/APM/logs 

[Lucas De Marchi]

On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 3:29 PM, Al B <cagi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Wiki pages will have to be updated then. e.g. Building-for-navio-on-rpi2
> suggests to copy the .elf file under /opt/apm/bin/ and the logs are
> currently generated under /var/APM/logs

Yep, they will be changed when we implement these things, which
includes parts on build system, configuration parsing, etc.


Lucas De Marchi

[Chuk Rhodes]

That all sounds good, but why not keep going... more like existing daemons, from Apache, and some others, at least :

-f config

Uses the directives in the file config on startup

And maybe:

-C directive

Process the configuration directive before reading config files.

-c directive

Process the configuration directive after reading config files.

And the config file should probably specify directories, with the above as default. One could edit /etc/ardupilot/ardupilot.conf to change one dir, or specify a config file with all customizations.

[James Harrison]

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On 29/12/2015 02:29, 'Randy Mackay' via drones-discuss wrote:
> Parameters: /etc/ardupilot/ardupilot.conf
>
> /etc/ardupilot/copter/defaults.parm OR
> /etc/ardupilot/defaults/copter/
>

The "Linux way" would typically be that /etc/ardupilot/ardupilot.conf
_is_ configured with the defaults, and that you'd edit it directly -
an alternative might be to package both ardupilot.conf and
ardupilot.conf.default, which would keep the defaults around without
users having to manually copy the file as a backup.

> Dataflash logs: /var/ardupilot/logs/1.BIN
>

Why not /var/log/ardupilot/n.bin? Again, packaging consistency on
Debian/Redhat based OSes.

> Pictures: /var/ardupilot/images

This makes total sense to me, though perhaps
/var/lib/ardupilot/images? This would make more sense/align with other
packages in Debian etc.

> Loadable Modules:/etc/ardupilot/modules.d/*.so
>

This kind of jars, in my opinion. These things should be in
/usr/lib/ardupilot - if which modules should be loaded is
configurable, throw that in /etc, but otherwise libs should be in,
well, lib. Even if it were just symlinking in
/etc/ardupilot/modules.d, but a /etc/ardupilot/modules.load file which
just listed which modules to load by path would be preferable imho.

>
>
> Note: our virtual eeprom stores data in “/var/APM/ArduCopter.stg”
> and we should consider moving this to
> “/var/ardupilot/ArduCopter.stg” or “/var/ardupilot/arducopter.stg”
>

Again, would suggest /var/lib/ardupilot instead for consistency with
other packages.

- --
Cheers,
James Harrison
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[Lucas De Marchi]

Hi James,

On Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 10:30 PM, James Harrison
<ja...@talkunafraid.co.uk> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> On 29/12/2015 02:29, 'Randy Mackay' via drones-discuss wrote:
>> Parameters: /etc/ardupilot/ardupilot.conf
>>
>> /etc/ardupilot/copter/defaults.parm OR
>> /etc/ardupilot/defaults/copter/
>>
>
> The "Linux way" would typically be that /etc/ardupilot/ardupilot.conf
> _is_ configured with the defaults, and that you'd edit it directly -
> an alternative might be to package both ardupilot.conf and
> ardupilot.conf.default, which would keep the defaults around without
> users having to manually copy the file as a backup.

/etc belongs to the user/administrator. If we want to also allow a
"from package configuration", then this should be in /usr. If it's a
"backup" then it's /usr/share, if it's configuration that gets
applied, then it is /usr/lib

>> Dataflash logs: /var/ardupilot/logs/1.BIN
>>
>
> Why not /var/log/ardupilot/n.bin? Again, packaging consistency on
> Debian/Redhat based OSes.

Because this is not the same kind of logs. The logs from the daemon
operation are currently on stdout and could be redirect elsewhere by
the init system of choice. I personally send them to journal since
it's much better maintained there.

The logs we are talking here belong more to the application. They are
the data generated by ardupilot during flight.

>> Pictures: /var/ardupilot/images
>
> This makes total sense to me, though perhaps
> /var/lib/ardupilot/images? This would make more sense/align with other
> packages in Debian etc.

Yeah, may make sense.

>> Loadable Modules:/etc/ardupilot/modules.d/*.so
>>
>
> This kind of jars, in my opinion. These things should be in
> /usr/lib/ardupilot - if which modules should be loaded is
> configurable, throw that in /etc, but otherwise libs should be in,
> well, lib. Even if it were just symlinking in
> /etc/ardupilot/modules.d, but a /etc/ardupilot/modules.load file which
> just listed which modules to load by path would be preferable imho.

This just ended up wrong in the email. In the call we mentioned
leaving them in /usr/lib/ardupilot indeed

>>
>> Note: our virtual eeprom stores data in “/var/APM/ArduCopter.stg”
>> and we should consider moving this to
>> “/var/ardupilot/ArduCopter.stg” or “/var/ardupilot/arducopter.stg”
>>
>
> Again, would suggest /var/lib/ardupilot instead for consistency with
> other packages.

Yep.

We want to make sure to follow a "normal linux package" approach.
There are some variations among distros that could be dealt with with
options to the build system. Like other packages do. But nowadays most
of the places are similar indeed.


thanks

Lucas De Marchi

[Daniel Frenzel]

Hi there,

1) I would like to suggest that the linux binaries which can be downloaded are stopped.

The only acceptable way is to write a build file for *.rpm or *.deb and use a build service.

2) The standard output, not the EEPROM stuff, belongs to /var/log

3) There is still a startup service file required

4) The should be also a PID file generated when starting the service

5) It would be nice to create a group so that AP can be started by the user

6) Startup scripts still required. Most users are totally unable to write their own :( 

[Fredrik Hedberg]

I know a power manager that's about to get grumpy, but what happened to the APM name? ;)

[Randy Mackay]

 

     I’d like to consolidate the outcome of the file location discussion.  I’m not an expert in this area so if there are corrections, can the replies include the entire list with the correction?  Let’s leave no room for doubt or interpretation on the locations.  So for example in the “Loadable Modules” section, I was unsure if the .so files would go into the directory listed below or if there would be an additional directory below this.

 

Parameters: /etc/ardupilot/ardupilot.conf

                         /etc/ardupilot/copter/defaults.parm OR /etc/ardupilot/defaults/copter/

 

Binaries: /usr/bin/arducopter

 

Local builds: /usr/local/bin/arducopter

 

Dataflash logs: /var/ardupilot/logs/1.BIN

Standard output from application: /var/log/ardupilot.log

 

Pictures: /var/lib/ardupilot/images

 

Loadable Modules:/usr/lib/ardupilot/*.so

 

-Randy

--

[Lucas De Marchi]

This is the document I shared in our last dev call:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Bqf1CcJkgWZBokmNKRm2sqZukezHVZRnGWdiV1sYfN4/edit?usp=docslist_api

Lucas De Marchi

[Randy Mackay]

 

     Ah, perfect, thanks!  I had missed that part of the discussion I think.

 

-Randy