How workgroups profit from GODI

When developers work together on a project, it is often important that all members use exactly the same software platform. The latest GODI release Skylift added a new feature that is very handy for ensuring this: The workgroup can use a common GODI profile that exactly defines which GODI packages are installed.

Generally, a profile describes from where to get GODI packages. Normally, GODI will install the latest version of every package retrieved from the package source (like almost all package managers). This can be problem, however, because the members of the workgroup often install the packages at different times, and because of this it may happen that everybody fetches different package versions. This is very disadvantagous - the platform is to some part random.

Now, the profile may also contain version constraints. The workgroup can agree on a common profile with such constraints (e.g. package foo must be installed in version 3.4), and the problem goes away. Additionally, GODI now archives packages in all historic versions, so that even very old versions are continously accessible.

Another new feature for workgroups is the possibility to distribute binary packages. One computer is used to build the packages the workgroup needs, and the resulting package set is exported to the other members (e.g. by copying the package files to a shared directory or to a web server). These can simply add the packages without having to build them. (Of course, this requires that everybody uses a compatible OS.)

Read more about these features.