Andrey Kolkov

Posted on Jan 10 • Originally published at github.com

GRPM v0.5.0: 75% Gentoo Coverage — Rapid Development Complete

#go #linux #opensource #packagemanager

October 2019, Gentoo Forums:

Me: "I'd rather rewrite Portage on Golang."

Reply: "We look forward to you having some work to show another 5 years from now."

— forums.gentoo.org

6 years later: 110,000 lines of Go. 7 releases. 75% tree coverage.

This is a follow-up to Why I Rewrote Portage in Go: Introducing GRPM v0.1.0

Rapid Development Complete

Today I'm releasing GRPM v0.5.0 — the final release of the rapid development phase. What started as "let's see how hard this is" became an 8-month sprint from v0.1.0 to v0.5.0:

Version	Coverage	Key Features
v0.1.0	~20%	Core, SAT solver, autotools
v0.3.0	~30%	PMS compliance, EAPI 0-8
v0.4.0	~60%	CMake, Meson, toolchain-funcs
v0.5.0	~75%	Python, Rust, Go ecosystems

The rapid development phase is now complete.

From here, GRPM enters a new phase: stabilization, code refinement, testing, and bug fixing. No more major feature sprints — the focus shifts to making what exists rock-solid and production-ready.

What's New in v0.5.0

Python Ecosystem Support

Full Python eclass suite implementation:

// internal/ebuild/eclass_python.go
type PythonEclass struct{}

func (e *PythonEclass) ExportedFunctions() []string {
    return []string{
        "python_foreach_impl",
        "python_setup",
        "python_fix_shebang",
        "distutils-r1_src_compile",
        "distutils-r1_src_install",
    }
}

Supported eclasses:

python-utils-r1 — Core Python utilities
python-single-r1 — Single implementation packages
python-r1 — Multi-implementation packages
python-any-r1 — Build-time dependencies
distutils-r1 — setuptools/flit/poetry builds

Rust Packages (cargo.eclass)

# Rust packages now work out of the box
sudo grpm emerge dev-util/ripgrep

GRPM handles:

Crate URI generation for SRC_URI
Automatic crate vendoring from DISTDIR
.cargo/config.toml generation
CFLAGS → RUSTFLAGS conversion
CHOST → Rust target triple mapping

Go Packages (go-module.eclass)

# Go packages with EGO_SUM support
sudo grpm emerge app-misc/yq

Features:

EGO_SUM parsing and SRC_URI generation
Go module cache setup
Vendor directory detection
GOPROXY=off for offline builds
CGO integration with system compilers

Package Sets

# Update entire system
sudo grpm update @world

# System packages only
sudo grpm update @system

Implemented sets:

@world — All explicitly installed packages
@system — Essential system packages
@selected — Packages in /var/lib/portage/world
@preserved-rebuild — Packages needing rebuild

Multilib Support

32-bit/64-bit ABI handling:

// internal/ebuild/eclass_multilib.go
var CommonABIs = map[string][]ABIInfo{
    "amd64": {
        {Name: "amd64", LibDir: "lib64", CFlags: ""},
        {Name: "x86", LibDir: "lib32", CFlags: "-m32"},
    },
    // arm64, arm, ppc64...
}

Functions: get_libdir, get_abi_CHOST, multilib_foreach_abi, multilib_is_native_abi

REQUIRED_USE Solver

Automatic USE flag resolution:

// internal/pkg/required_use.go
// Handles: || (any-of), ^^ (exactly-one), ?? (at-most-one)
// Conditionals: flag?, !flag?

expr := "|| ( python_targets_python3_11 python_targets_python3_12 )"
result := ValidateRequiredUse(expr, enabledFlags)

Architecture Recap

GRPM uses SAT-based dependency resolution with Domain-Driven Design:

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│  CLI / Daemon Layer                 │
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Application Layer                  │  ← Use cases
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Domain Layer                       │  ← SAT solver, packages
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Infrastructure Layer               │  ← Portage repo, sync, install
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

Why SAT solvers? If a valid installation exists, the solver will find it. No heuristics, no "dependency hell" — mathematically guaranteed.

Build System Support

GRPM now handles the three major build systems:

System	Coverage	Implementation
Autotools	~40% of tree	`econf`, `emake`
CMake	~15% of tree	`cmake.eclass` with Ninja/Makefiles
Meson	~5% of tree	`meson.eclass` with ninja

Plus language-specific:

Python (~10%) — distutils-r1
Rust (~3%) — cargo.eclass
Go (~2%) — go-module.eclass

Combined: ~75% of Gentoo package tree.

Performance: Still Fast

GRPM uses coregex for regex operations:

Operation	stdlib regexp	coregex	Speedup
Compile	5,100 ns	23 ns	221x
Match	185 ns	1.5 ns	123x

For a package manager parsing thousands of ebuilds, this matters.

Technical Stats

Metric	v0.1.0	v0.5.0
Lines of Code	~60,000	~110,000
Internal Packages	15	20
Test Coverage	~70%	~70%
Tree Coverage	~20%	~75%

Key Dependencies

Library	Purpose
gophersat	SAT solver (pure Go)
mvdan.cc/sh	Bash interpreter
coregex	Fast regex
modernc.org/sqlite	Pure Go SQLite
gokrazy/rsync	Native rsync

All pure Go — no CGO required.

What Was Fixed Since v0.1.0

Every limitation from the initial release has been addressed:

v0.1.0 Limitation	Status
"Autotools only"	✅ CMake, Meson added (v0.4.0)
"Limited eclass support"	✅ 15+ eclasses (v0.3.0-v0.5.0)
"No EAPI 8"	✅ Full EAPI 0-8 (v0.3.0)
"No CMake/Meson"	✅ Full support (v0.4.0)
"No Python packages"	✅ distutils-r1 (v0.5.0)
"No Rust packages"	✅ cargo.eclass (v0.5.0)
"No Go packages"	✅ go-module.eclass (v0.5.0)

Quick Start

# Download latest release
wget https://github.com/grpmsoft/grpm/releases/latest/download/grpm_linux_amd64.tar.gz
tar -xzf grpm_linux_amd64.tar.gz
sudo install -m 0755 grpm /usr/bin/grpm

# Sync and use
sudo grpm sync
grpm search firefox
sudo grpm emerge --pretend app-misc/hello

What's Next: Stabilization Phase

The rapid development phase is complete. No more feature sprints.

The next phase focuses on:

Bug Fixing — Edge cases, error handling, hardening
Code Quality — Refactoring, cleanup, documentation
Testing — Unit tests, integration tests, real Gentoo systems
Performance — Optimization for large dependency graphs
Community Feedback — Issues, bug reports, real-world usage

v1.0.0 will be released when the community validates it's production-ready. No artificial deadlines — quality comes first.

Links

Repository: github.com/grpmsoft/grpm
Release: v0.5.0
Changelog: CHANGELOG.md

From forum skepticism to 75% coverage in 6 years. The rapid development sprint is done — now comes the careful work of stabilization. Sometimes the best response to "we'll see in 5 years" is shipping code, then polishing it until it shines.

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