2. Turtles Overview

2.1. Turtles Concepts

YAML: A structured data format, like XML or JSON.
YAML configuration object: A YAML object that describes the an entity and its configuration, using a specified vocabulary. A YAML file contains one or more YAML configuration objects.
Plugin set: A code repository containing the source code and unit tests of one or more LOCKSS plugins.
Plugin set builder: A code build process that is used to compile and package the plugins in a plugin set.
Plugin set definition: A YAML configuration object describing a plugin set and its characteristics, including characteristics needed by its builder. See Configuring a Plugin Set, Plugin Set Definition Reference.
Plugin set catalog: A collection of one or more plugin sets.
Plugin set catalog definition: A YAML configuration object describing a plugin set catalog. See Configuring a Plugin Set Catalog, Plugin Set Catalog Definition Reference.
Plugin registry: An on-disk directory tree served by a Web server, to make LOCKSS plugins available to the nodes of a LOCKSS network.
Plugin registry layer: A subdivision of a plugin registry. Some LOCKSS plugin registries have a single layer (traditionally named production), and many have two (traditionally named testing and production, with the former serving for plugin development and/or content processing purposes before the corresponding plugins and/or content are made available to the latter). There can be more layers and they can have arbitrary names.
Plugin registry definition: A YAML configuration object describing a plugin registry and its characteristics, including its layers. See Configuring a Plugin Registry, Plugin Registry Definition Reference.
Plugin registry catalog: A collection of one or more plugin registry definitions.
Plugin registry catalog definition: A YAML configuration object describing a plugin registry catalog.
Plugin signing credentials: Elements needed to cryptographically sign plugins. Currently, this includes a signing keystore and a signer identifier from the keystore.
Plugin signing credentials definition: A YAML configuration object describing a user's plugin signing credentials.
Building plugins: Producing JAR files out of the source code of LOCKSS plugins from a plugin set, and cryptographically signing them with given plugin signing credentials.
Deploying plugins: Putting the JAR files of built LOCKSS plugins in one or more plugin registry layers, making them available to LOCKSS nodes configured to use the corresponding plugin registries.
Releasing plugins: Building then deploying plugins.

2.2. Turtles Operations

Turtles operations fall into three categories:

Turtles Plugin Building Operations
Turtles Plugin Deployment Operations
Other Turtles Operations

2.2.1. Turtles Plugin Building Operations

Turtles has two operations that are concerned with building plugins:

Operation	Command Line	API
Build plugins	turtles build-plugin	`lockss.turtles.app.TurtlesApp.build_plugin()`
Release plugins [1]	turtles release-plugin	`lockss.turtles.app.TurtlesApp.release_plugin()`

2.2.2. Turtles Plugin Deployment Operations

Turtles has two operations that are concerned with deploying plugins:

Operation	Command Line	API
Deploy plugins	turtles deploy-plugin	`lockss.turtles.app.TurtlesApp.deploy_plugin()`
Release plugins [1]	turtles release-plugin	`lockss.turtles.app.TurtlesApp.release_plugin()`

2.2.3. Other Turtles Operations

Other Turtles operations include:

Operation	Command Line	API
Copyright statement	turtles copyright	`lockss.turtles.__copyright__`
Software license	turtles license	`lockss.turtles.__license__`
Subcommand tree	turtles tree	n/a
Version number	turtles version	`lockss.turtles.__version__`

Footnotes