Getting the Launchpad source code is fairly simple, but it's not the usual process of "download a package, unpack, build, and install". Since we do new rollouts of Launchpad directly from Bazaar branches anyway, that's how we distribute the source code to developers. There are no plans to package Launchpad, its deployment is quite complex.

Note that right now, Launchpad can only be built and run on Ubuntu (8.04 "Hardy" to 9.04 "Jaunty"). That's not a design decision, it's just a consequence of the fact that, until now, all its developers have been running Ubuntu. We'd be happy to see Launchpad work on other platforms too; perhaps starting with Debian GNU/Linux would be easiest, since Debian and Ubuntu are similar and many Debian developers use Launchpad anyway.

The images/icons are still copyrighted traditionally, to protect Launchpad's visual identity. But they're shipped with the code and are fine to use for development and testing purposes. Just if you launch a production server, it needs to look different -- and have a different name, of course, as "Launchpad" is a trademark. From our point of view, we're doing this to improve our hosted service, so if you feel the need to run it on your own servers, that might mean we're doing something wrong, in which case we hope you'll tell us what.

Note: the changes introduced by the install script may break your current web development setup so it is advisable to try Launchpad on a separate virtual or physical machine.

Also note: Launchpad does not work on karmic yet! There is a hard dependency on python2.4, but we aim to fix this before karmic is released. Developers are currently using Jaunty.

Overview

Launchpad is a core of service-specific code surrounding various third-party libraries, some of which are installed. So the process of fetching Launchpad to build it looks something like this: grab the core code, grab all the libraries, unpack them into the right places in the tree, and then build the whole thing.

Fortunately, we've written scripts to take care of most of that, and instructions on using those scripts are below.

Launchpad's branches are hosted in Bazaar, using the most up-to-date repository format available. That means you'll need to use at least Bazaar 1.16.1 to get Launchpad -- and please consider using 1.17, which has just been released. Packages are also available in the Bazaar PPA

The source tree is about 150Mb, although the total size of the repository you'll download is about 280Mb, as you're getting the full history with it.

Alternative Sourcecode Download

To get started quickly, you can download a copy of the sourcecode, with history, from here. (It's the launchpad.tar.gz file).

Getting It

So, assuming you have a high enough version of Bazaar installed, and you're running Ubuntu 9.04, here is how to get Launchpad:

  $ mkdir ~/launchpad
  $ cd ~/launchpad
  $ bzr --no-plugins cat http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~launchpad-pqm/launchpad/devel/utilities/rocketfuel-setup > rocketfuel-setup
  $ chmod a+x rocketfuel-setup
  $ ./rocketfuel-setup

    ## This will take a while -- maybe a few hours to get everything,
    ## depending on your Net connection.
    ##
    ## Note that you will be prompted for your 'sudo' password, and for
    ## a Launchpad login ID.  The sudo access is necessary to get
    ## Launchpad running on your box; the Launchpad.net login is not
    ## strictly necessary, and you can just hit Return there if you
    ## want; see below for an explanation.
    ##
    ## Note that this will make changes to your Apache configuration if
    ## you already have an Apache server on your box. It will also add
    ## entries to /etc/hosts and it will setup a postgresql server on
    ## you box.
    ## If you want to play safe with regards to your existing Apache,
    ## try this out in a virtual environment first.
    ## TODO: Make sure this list is complete!

  $ ls
  lp-branches/    lp-sourcedeps/
  $ cd lp-branches

    ## You are now in a newly-created Bazaar repository, with one
    ## branch ('devel'), into whose working tree the other
    ## source dependencies have been symlinked.  The sourcedeps
    ## actually live in ../lp-sourcedeps, though.

  $ ls  devel/
  
    ## That's it!  That's your Launchpad trunk.

  $ cd devel

    ## Before you can run Launchpad for the first time, you need to
    ## set up postgres.
    ## DO NOT run this script if you use postgres for anything other
    ## than Launchpad!!  See https://dev.launchpad.net/DatabaseSetup

    ## Read the above comment!  This will destroy any postgres databases
    ## on your system.
  $ ./utilities/launchpad-database-setup $USER

  $ make schema && make run

    ## If you run into problems here, go join the #launchpad-dev
    ## IRC channel at irc.freenode.net and ask for help.  Subsequent
    ## builds can just do "make run"; you want to use "make schema"
    ## sparingly, because it's expensive and because it will clean out
    ## any data you might have put into your test instance through the
    ## web UI or by running other scripts.

What the Installation Process Does

The rocketfuel-setup script first determines what release of Ubuntu you're running, then installs various lines into files under /etc, to enable you to run Launchpad services locally. For example, it adds entries for "launchpad.dev", "bazaar.launchpad.dev", "lists.launchpad.dev", and others to your /etc/hosts file, so that after you build launchpad you can browse to launchpad.dev and see a locally-running instance. It also installs some packages, dependencies that Launchpad needs in order to run. This is why the sudo access is necessary; consult the script for details of what it's doing.

Once it's got the system preparation out of the way, the script initializes a Bazaar repository (that's the lp-branches directory above), and pulls down a development trunk (lp-branches/devel). That will take a while.

After it gets that, it fetches the other dependencies, the third-party libraries, by invoking a separate script, lp-branches/devel/utilities/rocketfuel-get. That will take a while too, as there are almost thirty such libraries.

Once it has all the dependencies, it links them into the trunk working tree, using the script lp-branches/devel/utilities/link-external-sourcecode.

Where to Get Help

Please ask questions sooner rather than later. The IRC channel #launchpad-dev at irc.freenode.net is where the experienced Launchpad developers will be hanging out; they can probably save you a lot of time. You can also join the mailing list. Finally, please point out problems in this wiki whenever you find wrong information (we'll probably open up editing to most or all Launchpad-authenticated users soon, but for the first few days after open sourcing Launchpad, we're keeping the wiki more tightly controlled to avoid spam).