Questions in this catagory:
- Where do I get the latest version?
See the "Installation" section of "Getting Started with Vesta". (If you're already running Vesta, you should consider replicating and building Vesta when upgrading.)
- Where do I get the latest RPMs/Debian packages?
Check the Vesta home page for up to date links, but currently RPMs and Debian packages are available on their own page.
- What operating systems is Vesta available for?
Getting Started with Vesta (manual install and instructions on how to run Vesta)
The Vesta tutorial (for using Vesta once it's up and running)
The vesta-intro man page (a guide to Vesta concepts and terminology)
- Where are the sources for Vesta? How do I get a copy of the source?
The sources for Vesta are stored in the Vesta repository. The way to get a copy of them is to set up your own repository and use the Vesta replicator. The document "Getting Started with Vesta" includes detailed instructions on how to do this.
The sources aren't much use unless you can compile them into the software they describe. Vesta is a build system itself, and is built using itself. This means that in order to build Vesta, you need a working Vesta installation. Vesta is also a revision control system, and is used for storing and versioning its own source. The build system and source repository are closely linked, and in order to build Vesta (or anything else using the Vesta builder) the sources must be stored in a Vesta repository. The way to get such a copy into your repository is to use Vesta's replication feature. (A non-master copy of source is called a replica).
So, the primary way for someone to get a copy of the Vesta source code is to set up their own Vesta repository, and replicate a copy of the source code from a publicly accessible Vesta repository. (For example, the one at pub.vestasys.org.) Once you've done that, you can build Vesta, as well as simply examine the source through the repository's NFS interface. (In fact, typically the only copy of the Vesta sources you will have will be in your repository.)
We feel that making source available for replication to any Vesta repository is sufficient, both for people who want to build modified versions of Vesta and to satisfy the requirements of Vesta's license (LGPL).
You can also examine the source to Vesta on the web. That's actually a live view of the Vesta repository at pub.vestasys.org using Scott Venier's vestaweb interface.
Bowing to popular demand, we are currently working on a Make-based source distribution of Vesta. Post to the vesta-devel mailing list (<vesta DASH devel AT lists DOT sourceforge DOT net>) if you're interested in helping test it.- How do I use Vesta under Windows?
At the time of this writing, we know of no attempts to port any part of Vesta to Windows. In other words, you can't currently run the Vesta servers or clients (checkout/checkin tools, the builder, etc.) under Windows.
The only known working solution for Windows users is using Samba to make the Vesta repository accessible to Windows clients. This makes it possible to read any existing versions and make changes to current checkouts. This may be enough for some uses.
As of January 2004, Microsoft recently made an NFS client for Windows available. This may provide another option, but we haven't yet heard of anyone successfully mounting the Vesta repository from Windows using this method. Using Cygwin to get the repository tools to work on Windows has also been suggested. As the current implementation of the build system relies on the chroot(2) system call, porting the build system to Windows would be a significant undertaking. If you're interested in working on a Windows port, post to the vesta-devel mailing list (<vesta DASH devel AT lists DOT sourceforge DOT net>).