Longleaf

Longleaf is a command-line tool which allows users to configure a set of storage locations and define custom sets of preservation services to run on their contents. These services are executed in response to applicable preservation events issued by clients. Its primary goal is to provide tools to create a simple and customizable preservation environment. Longleaf:

  • Offers a predictable command-line interface and integrates with standard command-line tools.

  • Offers configurable and customizable criteria based preservation workflows.

  • Provides a base set of tools and a framework for building extensions.

  • Provides activity logging and notifications.

  • Performs preservation services only when required.

Installation

There are two primary ways to install Longleaf, depending on how you intend to use it:

Standalone gem

To use Longleaf as a command-line application, the gem can be installed using:

$ gem install longleaf

Or it may be built from source:

$ git clone git@github.com:UNC-Libraries/longleaf-preservation.git
$ cd longleaf-preservation
$ bin/setup
$ bundle exec rake install # builds the gem
$ gem install --local pkg/longleaf* # installs gem

Applicaton dependency

To make use of longleaf as a dependency of your application, add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'longleaf'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Usage

Register a file

In order to register a new file with Longleaf, use the register command: longleaf register -c <config.yml> -f <path to file>

In the case that a file's content is replaced, the file can be re-registered by providing the --force flag.

Validate configuration files

Application configuration files can be validated prior to usage with the following command: longleaf validate_config -c <config.yml>

Output and logging

The primary output from Longleaf is directed to STDOUT, and contains both success and failure messages. If you would like to only return failure messages, you may provide the --failure_only flag.

Additional logging is sent to STDERR. To control the level of logging, you may provide the --log-level parameter, which expects the standard Ruby Logger levels. The default log level is 'WARN'.

Messages sent to STDOUT are duplicated to STDERR at 'INFO' level, so they are excluded by default. In order to store an ongoing log of activity and errors, you would perform the following: longleaf <command> --log-level 'INFO' 2> /logs/longleaf.log

Development

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies.

To perform the tests, run: bundle exec rspec

To run Longleaf with local changes without needing to do a local install, you may run: bundle exec exe/longleaf <command>

To install this gem onto your local machine, run: bundle exec rake install

This places a newly built gem into the pkg/ directory. This gem may then be installed in order to run commands in the longleaf <command> form. Note: Only files committed to git will be included in the installed gem.

To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and tags, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.

Indexing

To use an index to improve performance, you will need to install the database drivers separately or bundle longleaf with the driver you wish to use: bundle install --with postgres

Options include: postgres, mysql2, mysql, sqlite, amalgalite

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at github.com/UNC-Libraries/longleaf-preservation.

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the Apache License 2.0.