1 = Setup PVE Development Environment =
3 0. Read https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Developer_Documentation
4 1. Install Debian 11 Bullseye (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 bullseye pvetest" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-development.list
24 7. Add the repository key, run:
26 wget -O- "https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/proxmox-release-bullseye.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 =
38 NOTE: this is a huge and probably outdated list intended to be able to build
39 (almost) all packages, from the UI/API components to backend components to our
40 Linux Kernel. If you only want to hack on specific topics you won't need most
42 Instead we try to have a complete list of build dependencies in each source
43 repositories 'debian/control' file. If you run `make deb` dpkg-buildpackage
44 will stop and tell you if you miss some required packages.
46 12. For installing the most important, always needed, ones run:
48 apt-get install build-essential git git-email debhelper pve-doc-generator
50 Additionally, for quickly installing (almost) all build dependencies run:
52 WARNING: this list is almost for sure outdated! Use the build-deps definitions
53 defined in each package! You could install `devscripts` (huge package, but nice
55 # mk-build-deps --install
56 in the top-level directory of a git repository.
58 apt-get install autotools-dev autogen dh-autoreconf dkms doxygen check pkg-config \
59 groff quilt dpatch automake autoconf libtool lintian libdevel-cycle-perl \
60 libjson-perl libcommon-sense-perl liblinux-inotify2-perl libio-stringy-perl \
61 libstring-shellquote-perl dh-systemd rpm2cpio libsqlite3-dev sqlite3 \
62 libglib2.0-dev librrd-dev librrds-perl rrdcached libdigest-hmac-perl \
63 libxml-parser-perl gdb libcrypt-openssl-random-perl \
64 libcrypt-openssl-rsa-perl libnet-ldap-perl libauthen-pam-perl \
65 libjson-xs-perl libterm-readline-gnu-perl oathtool libmime-base32-perl \
66 liboath0 libpci-dev texi2html libsdl1.2-dev libgnutls28-dev \
67 libspice-protocol-dev xfslibs-dev libnuma-dev libaio-dev \
68 pve-libspice-server-dev libusbredirparser-dev glusterfs-common \
69 libusb-1.0-0-dev librbd-dev libpopt-dev iproute bridge-utils numactl \
70 glusterfs-common ceph-common python-ceph libgoogle-perftools4 \
71 libfile-chdir-perl lvm2 glusterfs-client liblockfile-simple-perl \
72 libsystemd-dev libreadline-gplv2-dev libio-multiplex-perl \
73 libnetfilter-log-dev libipset3 ipset socat libsasl2-dev libogg-dev \
74 python-pyparsing libfilesys-df-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl \
75 libfile-readbackwards-perl libanyevent-perl libanyevent-http-perl \
76 unzip liblocale-po-perl libfile-sync-perl cstream \
77 lzop dtach hdparm gdisk parted ttf-dejavu-core \
78 liblzma-dev dosfstools mtools libxen-dev libfuse-dev libcpg-dev libquorum-dev \
79 libcmap-dev libuuid-perl libqb-dev libapparmor-dev docbook2x libcap-dev \
80 dh-apparmor graphviz libseccomp-dev libglib-perl libgtk3-perl libnss3-dev \
81 libdlm-dev libudev-dev asciidoc-dblatex source-highlight libiscsi-dev \
82 libiscsi7 librsvg2-bin libarchive-dev libgpgme-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev \
83 libtest-mockmodule-perl libjemalloc-dev libjpeg-dev
86 = Compile PVE packages from Source =
88 13: Download and install git repositories as Proxmox modules:
90 run: mkdir /root/proxmox && cd /root/proxmox
92 run: git clone git://git.proxmox.com/git/pve-common.git
94 'pve-common.git' is some kind of starting repository and needed for some
95 other repositories as dependency.
96 Install this to get an idea of how the installation process is working.
98 See https://git.proxmox.com/ for all available repositories.
100 14: Most packages can be installed with 'make dinstall' command.
101 run: cd pve-common && make dinstall
103 15: Reboot the system.
104 16. Learn to use the quilt patch scripts.
110 We decided to change our SOAP API (1.X) and use a REST like API. The
111 concept is described in [1] (Resource Oriented Architecture
112 (ROA)). The main advantage is that we are able to remove a lot of code
113 (the whole SOAP stack) to reduce software complexity.
115 We also moved away from server side content generation. Instead we use
116 the ExtJS Rich Internet Application Framework
117 (http://www.sencha.com).
119 That framework, like any other AJAX toolkit, can talk directly to the
120 REST API using JSON. So we were able to remove the server side
121 template toolkit completely.
123 = JSON and JSON Schema =
125 We use JSON as data format, because it is simple and parse-able by any
128 Additionally, we use JSON Schema [2] to formally describe our API. So
129 we can automatically generate the whole API Documentation, and we can
130 verify all parameters and return values.
132 A great side effect was that we are able to use JSON Schema to
133 produce command line argument parsers automatically. In fact, the REST
134 API and the command line tools use the same code.
136 Object linkage is done using the JSON Hyper Schema (links property).
138 A small utility called 'pvesh' exposes the whole REST API on the command
141 So here is a summary of the advantage:
143 - easy, human readable data format (native web browser format)
144 - automatic parameter verification (we can also verify return values)
145 - automatic generation of API documentation
146 - easy way to create command line tools (using same API).
148 = API Implementation (PVE::RESTHandler) =
150 All classes exposing methods on the API use PVE::RESTHandler as base class.
152 use base qw(PVE::RESTHandler);
154 To expose methods, one needs to call register_method():
156 __PACKAGE__->register_method ($schema);
158 Where $schema is a PVE method schema as described in
159 PVE::JSONSchema. It includes a description of parameters and return
160 values, and a reference to the actual code
162 __PACKAGE__->register_method ({
166 description => "simple return value of parameter 'text'",
168 additionalProperties => 0,
181 return $param->{text};
185 The 'name' property is only used if you want to call the method
186 directly from Perl. You can do that using:
188 print __PACKAGE__->echo({ text => "a test" });
190 We use Perl's AUTOLOAD feature to implement this. Note: You need to
191 pass parameters a HASH reference.
193 There is a special helper method called cli_handler(). This is used by
194 the CLIHandler Class for command line tools, where you want to pass
195 arguments as array of strings. This uses Getopt::Long to parse parameters.
197 There is a second way to map names to methods - using the 'path'
198 property. And you can register subclasses. That way you can set up a
199 filesystem like hierarchy to access methods.
202 ----------------------------
205 __PACKAGE__->register_method ({
211 __PACKAGE__->register_method ({
220 __PACKAGE__->register_method ({
226 -------------------------------
228 The utily method find_handler (in PVE::RESTHandler) can be use to do
229 'path' related method lookups.
231 C1->find_handler('GET', "/index") => C1::list1
232 C1->find_handler('GET', "/sub2/index") => C2::list2
234 The HTTP server use the URL (a path) to find the corresponding method.
239 [1] RESTful Web Services
240 Web services for the real world
243 Leonard Richardson, Sam Ruby
249 [2] JSON Schema links: http://json-schema.org/