1 = Setup PVE Development Environment =
3 0. Read https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Developer_Documentation
4 1. Install Debian 9 'stretch' (you can also start from a PVE installation and
5 skip step 2 - 5, 7 - 11)
6 2. Configure the network interface(s)
7 3. Change the IP address of your hostname for proper name resolution
9 Using 127.0.1.1 will not work, so change it to an IP address from your
12 4: Check that the Debian repositories are set properly.
13 See https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList for more information.
15 5. Optional: Install openssh-server and connect via ssh to the host.
17 run: apt-get update && apt-get install openssh-server
18 Connect via ssh to host and switch user to root
20 6. Configure 'pvetest' repository in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/:
22 run: echo "deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian stretch pvetest" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-development.list
24 7. Add the repository key:
26 run: wget -O- "http://download.proxmox.com/debian/proxmox-ve-release-5.x.gpg" | apt-key add -
28 8. run: apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
29 9. run: apt-get install proxmox-ve
30 10. run: mv /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.list.bak
32 11. You should now have a working Proxmox VE installation.
33 Open a browser: https://<host_IP_address>:8006 e.g. https://10.0.0.90:8006
36 = Install build prerequisites for development environment =
40 apt-get install build-essential git git-email debhelper \
41 autotools-dev autogen dh-autoreconf dkms doxygen check pkg-config \
42 groff quilt dpatch automake autoconf libtool lintian libdevel-cycle-perl \
43 libjson-perl libcommon-sense-perl liblinux-inotify2-perl libio-stringy-perl \
44 libstring-shellquote-perl dh-systemd rpm2cpio libsqlite3-dev sqlite3 \
45 libglib2.0-dev librrd-dev librrds-perl rrdcached libdigest-hmac-perl \
46 libxml-parser-perl gdb libcrypt-openssl-random-perl \
47 libcrypt-openssl-rsa-perl libnet-ldap-perl libauthen-pam-perl \
48 libjson-xs-perl libterm-readline-gnu-perl oathtool libmime-base32-perl \
49 liboath0 libpci-dev texi2html libsdl1.2-dev libgnutls28-dev \
50 libspice-protocol-dev xfslibs-dev libnuma-dev libaio-dev \
51 pve-libspice-server-dev libusbredirparser-dev glusterfs-common \
52 libusb-1.0-0-dev librbd-dev libpopt-dev iproute bridge-utils numactl \
53 glusterfs-common ceph-common python-ceph libgoogle-perftools4 \
54 libfile-chdir-perl lvm2 glusterfs-client liblockfile-simple-perl \
55 libsystemd-dev libreadline-gplv2-dev libio-multiplex-perl \
56 libnetfilter-log-dev libipset3 ipset socat libsasl2-dev libogg-dev \
57 python-pyparsing libfilesys-df-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl \
58 libfile-readbackwards-perl libanyevent-perl libanyevent-http-perl \
59 unzip liblocale-po-perl libfile-sync-perl cstream \
60 lzop dtach apt-transport-https hdparm gdisk parted ttf-dejavu-core \
61 liblzma-dev dosfstools mtools libxen-dev libfuse-dev corosync-dev \
62 libcpg-dev libquorum-dev libcmap-dev libuuid-perl \
63 libqb-dev libapparmor-dev docbook2x libcap-dev dh-apparmor \
64 graphviz libseccomp-dev libglib-perl libgtk3-perl libnss3-dev libdlm-dev \
65 libudev-dev asciidoc-dblatex source-highlight libiscsi-dev libiscsi7 \
69 = Compile PVE packages from Source =
71 13: Download and install git repositories as Proxmox modules:
73 run: mkdir /root/proxmox && cd /root/proxmox
75 run: git clone git://git.proxmox.com/git/pve-common.git
77 'pve-common.git' is some kind of starting repository and needed for some
78 other repositories as dependency.
79 Install this to get an idea of how the installation process is working.
81 See https://git.proxmox.com/ for all available repositories.
83 14: Most packages can be installed with 'make dinstall' command.
84 run: cd pve-common && make dinstall
86 15: Reboot the system.
87 16. Learn to use the quilt patch scripts.
93 We decided to change our SOAP API (1.X) and use a REST like API. The
94 concept is described in [1] (Resource Oriented Architecture
95 (ROA)). The main advantage is that we are able to remove a lot of code
96 (the whole SOAP stack) to reduce software complexity.
98 We also moved away from server side content generation. Instead we use
99 the ExtJS Rich Internet Application Framework
100 (http://www.sencha.com).
102 That framework, like any other AJAX toolkit, can talk directly to the
103 REST API using JSON. So we were able to remove the server side
104 template toolkit completely.
106 = JSON and JSON Schema =
108 We use JSON as data format, because it is simple and parse-able by any
111 Additionally, we use JSON Schema [2] to formally describe our API. So
112 we can automatically generate the whole API Documentation, and we can
113 verify all parameters and return values.
115 A great side effect was that we are able to use JSON Schema to
116 produce command line argument parsers automatically. In fact, the REST
117 API and the command line tools use the same code.
119 Object linkage is done using the JSON Hyper Schema (links property).
121 A small utility called 'pvesh' exposes the whole REST API on the command
124 So here is a summary of the advantage:
126 - easy, human readable data format (native web browser format)
127 - automatic parameter verification (we can also verify return values)
128 - automatic generation of API documentation
129 - easy way to create command line tools (using same API).
131 = API Implementation (PVE::RESTHandler) =
133 All classes exposing methods on the API use PVE::RESTHandler as base class.
135 use base qw(PVE::RESTHandler);
137 To expose methods, one needs to call register_method():
139 __PACKAGE__->register_method ($schema);
141 Where $schema is a PVE method schema as described in
142 PVE::JSONSchema. It includes a description of parameters and return
143 values, and a reference to the actual code
145 __PACKAGE__->register_method ({
149 description => "simple return value of parameter 'text'",
151 additionalProperties => 0,
164 return $param->{text};
168 The 'name' property is only used if you want to call the method
169 directly from Perl. You can do that using:
171 print __PACKAGE__->echo({ text => "a test" });
173 We use Perl's AUTOLOAD feature to implement this. Note: You need to
174 pass parameters a HASH reference.
176 There is a special helper method called cli_handler(). This is used by
177 the CLIHandler Class for command line tools, where you want to pass
178 arguments as array of strings. This uses Getopt::Long to parse parameters.
180 There is a second way to map names to methods - using the 'path'
181 property. And you can register subclasses. That way you can set up a
182 filesystem like hierarchy to access methods.
185 ----------------------------
188 __PACKAGE__->register_method ({
194 __PACKAGE__->register_method ({
203 __PACKAGE__->register_method ({
209 -------------------------------
211 The utily method find_handler (in PVE::RESTHandler) can be use to do
212 'path' related method lookups.
214 C1->find_handler('GET', "/index") => C1::list1
215 C1->find_handler('GET', "/sub2/index") => C2::list2
217 The HTTP server use the URL (a path) to find the corresponding method.
222 [1] RESTful Web Services
223 Web services for the real world
226 Leonard Richardson, Sam Ruby
232 [2] JSON Schema links: http://json-schema.org/