Install and Package

This guide covers source builds, local installs, docs installs, and the packaging-oriented make targets shipped in the repository.

Build from source#

Recommended build path:

cd virtnosis
make build
make verify

make build always goes through build.slk, builds both shipped executables, verifies the declared output surface, and writes build/build-manifest.json. The resulting install surface is the virtnosis-agent and vnactl command pair.

Install#

Install binaries, docs, and man pages:

cd virtnosis
make install PREFIX=/usr/local

Install docs and section-7 references only:

cd virtnosis
make install-docs PREFIX=/usr/local

What the install surface includes:

executables under $(PREFIX)/bin
markdown docs under $(PREFIX)/share/doc/virtnosis/
section 1 and section 7 man pages under $(PREFIX)/share/man/
install metadata under $(PREFIX)/share/virtnosis/metadata/

Systemd example assets#

Install example units and packaging assets:

cd virtnosis
make install-systemd-examples PREFIX=/usr \
  SYSTEM_LISTEN_GID=123 \
  SYSTEM_SOCKET_GROUP=virtnosis

Remove those staged assets again:

cd virtnosis
make uninstall-systemd-examples PREFIX=/usr

Use Systemd Guide for the operational story behind those assets.

Verification and release lanes#

Common verification targets:

make verify
make runtime-deps
make binary-footprint
make repro-check
make systemd-verify
make control-plane-soak

Packaging and release-oriented targets:

make package-stage-verify
make package-stage-verify-systemd
make release-verify
make dist

These targets matter because the repo treats install metadata, staged install verification, and packaging templates as part of the maintained product surface.

Packaging metadata and provenance#

When you are building packages or auditing release outputs, the important targets are:

make build-preflight
make build-outputs
make build-manifest
make build-manifest-check
make install-manifest*
make install-metadata*
make package-metadata*
make package-templates*
make package-skeletons*
make package-artifact-manifest*