Installing gettext RPM

[naioja]

In order to work with yaml files for kubernetes deployments we need a tool to do variable substitutions.
Usually we would use yq but Azure Linux is not packaging this binary the next best thing is envsubst which is provided by the gettext rpm.

[darrentu]

Hi @naioja, would you mind answering these questions please?

1. Are there workarounds for installing this in Cloud Shell without adding it into the image? If so, what are the workaround(s)?
2. What is the additional size that it would add to the image?
3. How often does the package or its dependencies need an update?
4. Which customers would be using the command? Are there specific teams or companies that would potentially benefit from this?

[naioja]

Hi @darrentu, please see my answers below:

1. Are there workarounds for installing this in Cloud Shell without adding it into the image? If so, what are the workaround(s)?
   There are a few possible workarounds:

For example if a customer would like to use yq , they would need to

• create a bin directory in clouddrive : mkdir ~/clouddrive/bin
• download the yq binary and place it in that directory : wget https://github.com/mikefarah/yq/releases/latest/download/yq_linux_amd64 -O ~/clouddrive/bin/yq && chmod +x ~/clouddrive/bin/yq
• modify for each session their bash PATH variable : export PATH="$PATH:~/clouddrive/bin"
• update manually the yq binary on their own

2. What is the additional size that it would add to the image?

As an rpm package the gettext is just 3.3 Mb in size

 du -hs gettext-0.21-3.cm2.x86_64.rpm
3.3M    gettext-0.21-3.cm2.x86_64.rpm

and unpacked 14 M

rpm2cpio gettext-0.21-3.cm2.x86_64.rpm | cpio -i --make-directories
25479 blocks

du -hs usr
14M     usr

3. How often does the package or its dependencies need an update?

The same way as the other system packages, no special requirements.

4. Which customers would be using the command? Are there specific teams or companies that would potentially benefit from this?

Yes, actually we would consume this internally for Executable Docs, for example in this doc:
https://github.com/Azure/InnovationEngine/blob/main/scenarios/ocd/CreateAKSDeployment/README.md?plain=1#L330
or
https://github.com/naioja/InnovationEngine/blob/aj_wp_aks/scenarios/ocd/CreateWordPressDeployment/README.md?plain=1#L373

envsubst is industry used as it's "buitl-in" the OS as it usually comes shipped with modern distros.