lxcpdl

lxc container with a full pdl environment

This is a full PDL installation within an LXC container running under Debian/Wheezy that can be used within a host running a mostly arbitrary linux flavor. The idea is that within the container, PDL and all the packages required for its use are already installed, saving time and allowing new users to test a full pdl installation with little effort.

This is my first attempt, so things may go wrong. Proceed with caution. It has been tested on a Debian/stretch host.

##Synopsis

$ sudo lxc-start pdl
# pdl
pdl> use PDL::Graphics::Gnuplot
pdl> gplot(zeroes(50)->xlinvals(0,15)->sin)
pdl> q
$ perl -MPDL -E 'say zeroes(10)->xvals'
[0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9]
$ 

##Installation

To run it you need a working lxc. In debian

$ sudo install lxc
$

You would have to clone the repository

$ git clone https://github.com/wlmb/lxcpdl.git
$

(it will take some time; it's size is about 300MB+). As github doesn't allow very large files, and I don't know how to commit files owned by root, I made a tar file and then split it in pieces. First join the pieces of the tar file:

$ cd lxcpdl
$ cat pieces-* >pdl.tar.xz
$ 

As root untar the file pdl.tar.xz file under the lxc directory

$ cd /var/lib/lxc
$ sudo tar xfJv  /path/to/lxcpdl/pdl.tar.xz --numeric-owner
$

It seems the --numeric-owner option is important. This should populate the directory /var/lib/lxc/pdl with the container.

Configuration

You may have to modify the network settings lxc.network.xxx of the container in the file /var/lib/lxc/pdl/config if they are incompatible with your system. I set up my network following https://wiki.debian.org/LXC/LibVirtDefaultNetwork. The safest configuration (no network) to test the system would comment out all the lxc.network.xxx lines and adding the single line

lxc.network.type = empty

The line lxc.mount.entry = /tmp/.X11-unix tmp/.X11-unix none bind,optional,create=dir allows the container to open X windows in the hosts display.

##Usage To use it I do the following (I don't understand completely, but it has worked so far): As an ordinary user running X, from an xterm run the command

$ xhost +local:
$

if you want to allow the container to use your X display. Then fire your container as a daemon

$ sudo lxc-start -n pdl -d
$

and connect to it

$ sudo lxc-attach -n pdl
#

If no errors, that command will take you to a sh session within the container where you will be working as superuser. Don't worry too much, as your actions cannot damage your host (they only affect the container). Anyway, there is an ordinary sudoer user (login: user, initial password: user) if you want to drop privileges.

# su user
$

You have to initializa the DISPLAY environment variable, e.g.

$ export DISPLAY=:0

You can run pdl and try out the demos

$ pdl
pdl> demo 3d
pdl> demo prima
pdl> <control>-d
$

or run PDL in any other way you want

$ perl -MPDL -E 'say zeroes(10)->xvals'
[0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9]
$ 

The container is a debian installation running on top of your host, but insulated from it, so you may run other debian programs such as apt-get mostly without affecting the host.

$ sudo apt-get install ...
$

When done, you may leave your user and your root sessions, which takes you back to your host

$ exit
# exit
$

where you can stop the container

$ sudo lxc-stop -n pdl
$

If you don't like it, you may remove it with

$ sudo lxc-destroy -n pdl
$

##Package contents

Debian/Wheezy + deb-multimedia.org sources

Debian packages:

apt-utils aptitude cmake cpanminus deb-multimedia-keyring dialog freeglut3-dev gfortran gnuplot-qt less libcfitsio3-dev libfridi-dev libgd2-xpm-dev libgif-dev libgsl0-dev libgtk-3-dev libhdf4-dev libhdf5-dev liblapack-dev libnetpbm10 libproj-dev libterm-readline-perl-perl libtiff4-dev libxft-dev libxi-dev libxmu-dev libxrender-dev make nano netpbm openssh-server tmux pgplot5 sharutils sudo wget xterm

CPAN packages:

Astro::FITS::Header Astro::FITS::CFITSIO Convert::UU Devel::CheckLib Data::Dumper Devel::REPL ExtUtils::F77 ExtUtils::MakeMaker File::Map File::Spec File::Temp Filter::Simple Filter::Util::Call Inline Inline::C Module::Compile OpenGL PGPLOT Pod::Parser Pod::Select Prima Storable Test::Exception Text::Balanced Text::Bidi

PDL PDL::Graphics::Gnuplot PDL::Stats PDL::LinearAlgebra PDL::Graphics::Prima PDL::IO::CSV PDL::IO::DBI

and their dependencies.

##Authors Victoria Domínguez del Angel and W. Luis Mochán [email protected]

##License GPL v2.0