To be published in the proceedings of the "Conference on Freely Redistributable Software" OCR Output

Presented at the "Conference on Freely Redistributable Software", Boston, February 2-5 1996

CERN, European Laboratory for Particle Physics. Geneva. Switzerland

Ph. Defert, E. Fernandez Dominguez, M. Goossens, A. Peyrat, I. Reguero

Production Environment

Automated Management of an Heterogeneous Distributed

CERN-CN·96-001

CERN LIBRARIES, GENEVA

c:E:RN-cN/ 96 /1

( V { .`\ in ii k = `EUROPEAN ORGANIZATION FOR NUCLEAR RESEARCH

} vg it i \°· Ti ~ r i

automate the generation and installation process is kept in the repository. Thus, when a product is sent OCR Outputtheir packages up—to·date. The provided tools in the ASIS data base. Only one copy of each productA tools suite helps product maintainers keep The correspondence between files and products is kepteach time the repository is updated.

• Execution environment directory (usr . local)schedule the execution of an ASISUpdate script•<p1atf orm> standard namecomputer, the only change in the system setup is to

order to gain access to software on ASIS from atorv.

The client interface is the more visible part. In(see Figure ??), i.e. directly below the ASIS root direc

repository.form are all stored in the same directory tree structure

version control information is maintained in theConversely, the InProduction products for a plat

ported. A data base describing all packages withHP computers. Soon nine platforms will be sup • subdirectories needed by the particular package.ferent platforms on SUN, DEC, IBM, SGI and usr . local which represents /us:r/ localaccess to more than 400 products for seven dif executed in the user environment, in our examplecommunity. Presently, the system allows users • directory in which it should be referenced whenware and many other tools written by the UNIX •<platfo1·m> standard nameX—windows contributions, TCL/TK based soft •<£ amily>/<11arrre>—<ve1`sio11> product nameGNU packages, the latest TEX/I£·TEX setup, MIT

shows the directory structure used.ysis software, the CERN Program Library, most[?]. The naming scheme is detailed in Figure ??, whichdomains: High Energy Physics (HEP) data analall specific and shared data such as in the NIST DepotThe included packages cover a large variety ofis completely stored in a given directory that containscontains the applications in an executable format.

A version of a product which is not InProductionThe repository is the central part of the project. Itbeing formally supported.

ASIS has three logical entities. coexist. but generally, only one is Ir1Production, i.e.erate and install those packages. In the repository, multiple versions of a package canware. It also offers tools to product maintainers to gen dencies. all symbolic links are relative.get, configure, generate, install and manage the soft the shared part. In order to avoid unwanted site depenfor day-to-day work. It frees end-users from having to Each specific part contains the necessary references tofreely available UNIX applications which are useful

pages, etc.provides an environment that offers a large number of

ASIS (the Application Software Installation Server) ing scripts, include files, fonts, Startup files, man• a shareable part, usable on all platforms, containunder source form.

ting utilities, drawing tools, etc., which are distributed taining binary files and libraries;• a specific part, corresponding to each O.S., consuch as editors, window managers, document format

exist a lot of useful freely available UNIX packagessoftwafé into two parts:very specihc and expensive. On the other hand, thereture/operating system (O.S.), it is useful to partitionis not always sufhcient. Commercial software is oftenment i.e. a combination of more than one architecThe standard software delivered with UNIX systems

Within the context of a heterogeneous environ

more recently DFS, the OSF Distributed File System.1 IntroductionSystem, NFS, the SUN Networked File System anderal distributed file systems: AFS, the Andrew File

At CERN, the ASIS repository is available on sevefficient way.

to make these tools simple and maintainable.replication of this environment on a remote site in andevoted to the design of the structure of the repositorytiple versions. A method is also proposed to allow the

maintainers with installation tools. A lot of care wastools to automate their generation and to manage mulsible for maintaining these products are provided with access to supported software packages and to provide

The main aim of the ASIS project is to facilitate userable applications. On the other hand, people responchange in their system setup to be able to run all availtral repository. Users merely have to introduce a small 2 Organisation of the Repositorycan get access to hundreds of packages from a cen

A production environment is described where usersattention.

with quality and reliability receiving maximumAbstract

prove performance, replicas are created for the most OCR Outputis used mainly for the installation of login shells andcreated in the execution directory. Similarly, to imhles of the product and some other file operations: thisASISUpdate can optimise the number of links to besponsible of a package can force a local copy for somesame "iile system" or "volume" and "directory tree",iiicts between ASIS and these files. The person re

Production. As all InProduction tiles reside in thenot modify user files but reports possible tile name con

Most users take the default environment i.e. In/nfs/ce1·n.ch/asis or /:/asis. The script does

tems, for instance at CERN: /afs/cem.eh/asis. same frequency as the repository is updated.from the directory / us1·/ local to distributed tile sys— ucts installed. Thus, ASISUpdate should be run at the

the correct execution environment. It creates links continuously updated, bugs corrected and new prod/usr/local) in such a way that all packages have The ASIS repository evolves rapidly as products aretory(ies) where applications should reside (in this case Figure ?? shows the product configuration window.

The ASISUpdate perl script builds the direc A TK based configuration editor is part of the tools.to maintain that directory.

not.ware in /usr/local (see [?]) and ASIS was chosen

• user files can be declared to be overwrite-able orsupport teams have decided to install all public soft

or the latest Certified one:At CERN, as well as in most HEP centres, the UNIX

repository. to be the one InProducti0n but can be any version• the version installed on a computer does not haveand indicate the current state of the products in the

product maintainer decided to do a local copy;package. They also detail differences between versions• a product is accessed via links only even if theASISBrc>wse give users a short description of each

links;The tool ASISInfo and its TK based incarnation• a product is copied locally instead of accessed via

• a product is ignored3 Users Access to ASIS

haviour of ASISUpdate in such a way thatA local system administrator can customise the betion ?? for the formal dehnitions of the states).

by ASISUpdate also.fied area to the InPr0ducti0n area (please refer to sec

some set-uid commands. These constraints are treatedto InPr0ducti0n, its files are moved from the Certi

Figure 1; The Directory Tree Structure of the Certified and InP1·0ducti0n Areas

lib/gcc-lib

asis/sun4c 411/ usr.l0cal/ bin/§cc

/nPr¢

x11/ d c O l/7usx.1ocal/includeggiey,, Z

manTex/

m1ps-sgi-irix5.2/sgi_i:ixSO/

asis/packages/rs6000—ibm-aix3.2.5/rs_aix32/

hppal`1-hp-hpux9.05/hp7CO_ux90/

GNU! qcc—2.7 1/ dec—alpha-0sf2.0/alpha_0s£13/

mips-dec-u1::ix4.3/pmax_ul43/

spa:c—sun—s0laris2.3/

sun4c_53/

..TCL! , __ sun»c_4;;/ usr.local/ - _ sparc—su¤-su¤os413/ llb/gcc 1lb/

bln/gcc

C@rt1f¢ed/

ter having been validated by the “testers" happi was written using perl ([?]) and expect ([?]). OCR Output

Certified: the software is available to all users af tribute the building tasks to these reference machines.ready to be used by the "testers" puter, where executables are built, and happi can dishave been transferred into the repository and are ported platform is associated with a dedicated com

vironment and the full available documentation readability of its output (see Figure ??). Each supInstalled: the executable files, their execution en interface that increases the usability of happi and thebeen run successfully. nal information. tkhappi. is an X-windows TK basedTested: the tests provided with the sources have the current state of a product and its associated inter

Executable: the executable files were built. a product from its current state into another or displayuration file(s) were generated. sta1ler". happi can execute a single transition, bringcompiled, generally after Makef1le(s> and conHg— "Heterogeneous Automated Product Processor and InConliguredSources: sources are ready to be mated way using a tool called happi which stands forin the repository. the ASIS "Software Processing Model" in an autoExpandedSources: ASCH sources are available A product maintainer can perform all operations inby the author(s) are stored in the repository.

4.1.2 The Automated EnvironmentL0calPackedSources: the sources as distributed

to store it.

tions are shown in Figure ??.which remote site it can get the source and whereThese states together with all possible state transiRemotePackedSources: the system knows from

forms.base.split in as many sub—states as there are supported platUnknown: the package is not present in the dataThe states ConIiguredS0urces to InProduction, are

The model defines the following states:• Deleted: product is removed from repository.

""state/transition diagram is shown in Figureported.to introduce a "Software Processing Model" whosefault environment of the users and officially supthe users. Based on our observations, we decided

• InPr0ducti0n: the software is included in the deare released until when the programs are delivered topackages go through, from the moment that the sourcesages, we were able to observe the various steps that

Figure 3: The “S0ftware Processing Model"Installing manually for over a year public domain pack

4.1.1 Description lnPr0duction

ln1mducelnProducrion I I Remove}? mmPraduction4.1 The Software Processing Model

CerulledDeleted

CemEnviromnentDelete

Installed4 The Product Maintainer’s

lnrmll

Testedplatforms.

Testfrequently accessed iile systems i.e. the more common

Executable

Buildlixeculable I CancelBuildFigure 2: The "pr0duct conf1guration" window

Cont1guredSources

Save changes§Discard changes§Sclect more than 1 versioni Delete line C0nj$gure50urces

ExpandedSourcuv UW'!v WW!-W

V mus; ._, masonry ExpzmdSources* l.al>est(18.3tl) V mcasmpy § r mwamangg

L0calPackedSourcesv °·*=··** 3 F F¤•¤=

GNU/cuac: Latest Default None Ge1PacAzd50urccs

: Product Version Access !1ng(s)RemotePaclredSourccsand lzzt Help oz F2.

Fa: help: place cuzsarDeclarePackage

•x;¢w1lu;

•1••·¤•¤•x•amvnn•1•¤wn•x•n Unknown

machine to create links to the central sources; torily, the modelling of repository changes needs the OCR Output• Link to run X11 Lndir on the local reference the actual operations performed on a package satisfac• Run to execute a shell command; Even though the Software Processing Model describes

tar lile and to store the sources;4.2.1 Repository Changes as Transactionsing the standard location to find the compressed

• Split to run GNU ta: to expand the sources us 4.2 The ASIS Transaction System

subroutines are described below:file.can be found in both Figures ?? and ??. Some of thesedefinitions of all transitions present in the configurationExamples of the use of the standard happi librariescally brings the product in the state specified, using thespecific and shared Eles.

When the system detects a new version, it automatibe devoted to correctly separate the installation of thetiguration file for GNU! emacs where some work had to in Teliinfo format).

A more complex case is given in Figure ??, the con GNU software as it assumes that documentation issponding to the most frequent operations. Postscript and HTML tiles (this applies only toalso because happi offers a library of functions corre file found in the directory tree its correspondingmany packages are well designed and easy to build, and • GNUMakePSa11d.HTML to generate for each dvi

area;In most cases, this tile can be very simple, sincenicely commented. of the package towards the corresponding shared

Figure ?? shows the one for X11/tgii which is • Shaxelink to create a link from the specific partperl, where all transitions are described. • file ’ xxxx for file manipulations;provide happi with a "configuration f1le", written in • ModifyFi1e to edit a tile;

• Make to run GNU make;The actual work of the "pr0duct maintainer" is to

Figure 4: tkhappi: the tk based interface to happi

smakelllz Leaving directory ‘[scratchxhappi/GNU/emacs-19.30/lib—src’sgiref;Do that after running make installReadysgi_52 ;as root, to give moyemai]. appropriate permissions.

makellla Leaving directory ‘/scratch/happi/GNU/emacs—19.30/lib—sH:_’rsref

zmakelllz Nothing to be done for ‘maybe—bleeemail'Readyts_aix32 ,..,,..,_y,y.r..y,,..........l..,_..__.,,_._..._..__......_.,.......,...,. ... :make[1]: Entering directory `/scratch/happi/GNU/Temacs—19.3G/lib-src' _" L 'aftef

zmake [1]: Nothing to be done for ‘maybe-blessmail',a1pha__o sf 2 0 amakell]; Entering directory ‘/scratch/GNU/emacs·19.30/lib-src'

zmnkelll; Leaving directory ‘/scratch/happi/GNU/emacs-19.30/lib-·src'dxref i_1 xzmakelll; Nothing to be done for `maybe-blessmail’.§ pmax__u1 43a '``` `"`' "7§E¥§EE1&%£j5§{7Eifti7éiéi§E"s—19I3b/Liblsm

_M______“____j__g: ` ``````'`"`""`''````“`'"'‘`` " ````````t```zmakelll; Leaving directory ‘/users/defert:/GNU/emacs-19.SU/].ib—src‘hptef:clmod +x blessmail§ hp’!00_wc9 0alircte /users/defert/GNU/emacs-19, 3Dilib-src/blessmail

zmakcillz Leaving directory ‘fscratchlhappi/GNU/emacs—19.30/lib—src'g sunso refachmod +x blessmail?;·;iR¤adYg sun4m_5 3 ;Wr;-be /scratch/happi/mm/emacs—19. 30/].ib—srcfblessmail

iemacs-19. 3G//* . pssunos re

@-?K®dY Ruxming; gzip —f /afs/.cam.ch/asia/packages/GNU/ema4:s—19.30/share/us:.local/doc/GNU/|__i sun4c_4 1 1 E fdaze: Wed Nov 29 17:01:59 1995 by defex:t:@sunosref (V)

_ gkuxming; fafsl . cern. ch/asia /src/happi/bin/Dcclarecertified GNU/emE:s—19date: Wed Nov 29 1120:14 1995 by dcEert:@gnuisam:c (V)gllappi Manage i Loca 1Host

V Execute transition iii I hnref _} I syiref § r oenugTestedy Bring to stats V FakeI sunsomf i I rsrefExecutable

V Display infnmuatiun c°“"g“'°dS°"°°S § A I sunosrcf { I afref § i vemusemueusuumes sum nn i r amt

.-._4_.-..*..*°*.£.“9£*i Hosts Selection OptionsH State ! Transition

HAPPI·:`Ii¥61l§IélElll£

» %i»m¤»fi;1 ii; ; zi, , .-.,.,.-\ °°°° =i"‘ = ’‘··; ‘

P: ·die! ·'·~ •.•

Qi 1 e goggi ng E9}?

erations secured by a checkpointing mechanism. OCR OutputF r0mPr0duczz0n that could only be built as atomic op

. . functions except IntroduceInPr0ducti0n and Remove- F` 5:Th X11t`f he t fh ` . . . lgum "’’ gl COD gum mn Or applAll transitions were implemented using idempotent"Product Maintainer" who then can launch tkhappi.the full generation. It sends an electronic mail to the

HKDIRHIER=mdirhi€r install _man..) . tribution site, the mirror program does not yet triggera·° _ when a new source distribution kit is released at the dis- ("HAHDIR=$d1r{Installed}/share/usr.locaI/man/mann\ _ _ _ _ ,&Hk

majority of the public domain packages. Presently,if ($share) {

# dedicated to share.eral hundreds of workstations.

# Install man pages only in the machinelation procedure of all UNIX systems and runs on sev

TGIFDIR=$tgifdir HKDIRHIER=mkdirhier install"); ASISUpdate is now part of the standard CERN instal<··B1uD11z=$d1r{1¤s:a11ed}/$sys/usr.1¤¤a1/bm/x11 \

&Hake 5 The Status of the Project

# Install in ’Installed’ area not in /usr/local/,

much more sense.&share11¤k<$cg1fd1r>;"$dir{Instal1ed}/$sys/usr.10cal/lib/X11/tgif">; to the size of the changes done to ASIS, which makes

$tgifdir= to update the local replica then becomes proportionalthe net. No check is done on unchanged data. The time3 /usr/local/lib/X11/tgif to the shared one.

# data, thus make a link from specific cally. Modified and new files are transferred throughW /usr/local/lib/X11/tgif only contains shared moved. The move operations can then take place losub Install {

ASIS data base what are the files that were modified or

formed since its last update. it can deduce from the

&Hake(’TGIFDIR=/usr/local/lib/X11/tgif’>: center happens to know all transactions that were per

itory i.e. some thousands of files. If a local replica# way. This is the ASIS choice tional cost is then proportional to the size of the repos# The author defines TGIFDIR in a non-standard

whole ASIS directory tree is necessary. The operasub Bui1dExecutable {tiles (like described in [‘?]), a complete traversal of theing clever programs which only transfer the modined

&Hake(’Hakefi1es’); HEP centres. Even though the mirroring is done us&Run(’xmkmf’);

Presently, the ASIS repository is mirrored in many

¥ Generate makefiles4.2.2 Replication using the Transactions List

&Link;

necessary transitions for all interdependent products.# Link to centrally stored sources

sion incompatibilities, the transaction will contain thesub C¤nfigureS0urces {simultaneously more than one package because of verthat depend on each other. If it is necessary to update

&Split;The same concept also solves the problem of packageslem occurs during the execution of the state transitions.# Run tar to extract the sources

he changes the version InPr0duction even if a probsub ExpandSources { will not disappear from the InP1·oduction area when

A product maintainer is then sure that his package"contrib/applications/$name/$na.me-$version . tar .gz"performed completely or not at all.$packedfile=

erations (transitions and! or speciiic actions) that are all8 structure. troduced in ASIS. A transaction is a sequence of op# gives us no control on the contrib directory tree

atomic way. Therefore, a transaction system was in—# Mirroring the whole ftp.x,0rg:/contrib directoryations should be executed in the right order and in an# The tar.gz file is not in the standard pub/X11.

one is lnzr0ducedInPr0ducz‘i0n. Moreover, both oper$fina1_automatic_state = ’Installed’ iirst version is Rem0vedFr0mPmducti0n, (2) a second

Production, two state transitions must take place: (1) a# File for X11/tgif

## —*- mode:perl -*— tainer has to change the version of a product that is Inintroduction of a new concept. When 21 product main

Figure 6: The GNU/ emacs configuration file for happi OCR Output

s#\${srcdir}#$dir{ExpandedSources}#g if (/‘CUPYDlR\s*=/);sub share_changed {

s#install—arch-indep## if (/‘install:/);sub changed {

# Subs to modify makefiles to separate share and the rest

&GNUMakePSandHTML();

x¢Hake<··dvi··>;

if ($share) {

# — Generate ps, HTML and Install in the ’doc’ standard area

# — Create the dvi files (nice we are with GNU)

# Install documentation (on share of course E)

&Sharelink("$dir{Installed}/$sys/usr.local/info",’F’);kfile’wipeout("$dir{Installed}/Ssys/usr.local/man");&file’wipeout("$dir{Installed}/$sys/usr.local/com");kfile’wipeout("$dir{Instal1ed}/$sys/usr.local/share")

# Some directories were created in specific and should be removed and info is shared data

&Make("prefix=$dir{Installed}/share/usr.local install—arch—indep");#changed = *share_changed; &ModifyFile(’Makefile’);

if ($share) {

&Make("prefix=$dir{Installed}/Ssys/usr`local install");&ModifyFile(’Makefile’);

# thereafter re-modify Makefile to install the shared part

# Modify Makefile once for installing only the files specific to each platform;

sub Install {

require ’happi/GNUmore.pl’

# Load GNU software specific library

&Make (’check’);

sub Test {

&Make(’CFLAGS=-O bitmapdir=/usr/local/include/X11/bitmaps:/usr/l0cal/include/X11/pixmaps’);

# Overwrite CFLAGS for performance reasons and change some bitmaps directories

sub BuildExecutable {

&Run("$cfg_cmd");$cfg_cmd .= ’ --with-gcc=no’ if ($sys =“/`a1pha_osf/);$cfg_cmd=’./configure —-with—x-toolkit=yes’

&Link;

4 Un alpha’s, use the USF X11 libraries as no MIT X11 release 5, Better use cc then.

sub ConfigureSources{

&Split;

sub ExpandSources {

$final_automatic_state = ’lnstalled‘

# File for GNU/emacs

## -*· modezperl -*·

1990. in 1972 and PhD in physics in 1978 from the Free OCR OutputLISA IV Pr0ceedings.. pages 37-46. Usenix. M. Goossens. After obtaining a MSc in physics

<ignacio . regue;ro@ce1·11 . ch>.ganizational and unix platform boundaries. Inwork for sharing software installation across or Unix system administrators. He can be reached atClark, and Walter Rowe. The depot: A frame Unix system software installation and consultancy for

[7] Kenneth Manheimer, Barry Warsaw. Stephen mance and communications, network backup systems,

engineer at CERN working on large systems perforsociates, Inc., 1995. more than 2000 offices. He is currently a systems

[6] Don Libes. Exploring Expect. O’Reilly and As as communications systems support of a network of

work. He worked in 1988 for "Banco De Santander"Physics, 3.00 version, 1994.1986 and 1987 as system engineer for the IBM IN netCERN, the European Laboratory for Particletocol, Following the X.420 Standard". He worked inReguero. ASIS: Users and Reference Guide.and Implementation of Interpersonal Messaging Pro[5] Philippe Defert, Alain Peyrat, and Ignaciomission". His graduation thesis was "Specification

ticle Physics, 1.00 version. 1995. '1"ransmission" and "Computer Science / Data TransGuide. CERN, the European Laboratory for Par two curriculum areas: "Data Communication / Data

nandez Dominguez. ASIS: Product Maintainer ’s versity of Madrid in 1985. He studied in parallel[4] Philippe Defert, Alain Peyrat, and Eusebio Fer Telecomunicacion" degree from the Polytechnic Uni

I. Reguero received the "Ingeniero Superior deVII Proceedings, pages 25-32. Usenix, 1993 <apey1·atQemail . teaser . f1·>.hot. Lude, a distributed software library. In LISA tween 1993 and 1995. He can presently be contacted atGerin-Lajoie, Pierre Laplante, and Pierre Mail

of Grenoble (France) in 1993. He worked at CERN be[3] Michel Dagenais, Stephane Boucher, Robert

ence Engineer of the ENSIMAG Engineering SchoolA. Peyrat received his degree of Computer Scitribution, Users Guide. Fermilab, FNAL. 1992.

<eusebio . fernandez(Qcem . ch>mula, and Margaret Votava. UNIX Product DisUniversity of Madrid (UPM). He may be contacted at[2] William Bliss, Jonathan Streets, Lourdu UduTelecommunications Engineer Title at the Technical

ings, pages 1-9. Usenix. 1991. End of Degree Project at CERN in order to get aheterogeneous unix network. In LISA V Proceed

[1] Paul Anderson. Managing program binaries in aings, pages 51-56. Usenix, 1993.

the software environment. In LISA VII ProceedReferences[141 Walter C Wong. Local disk depot — customizing

perl. O’Reilly and Associates, Inc., 1991.management.

[131 Larry Wall and Randal Schwartz. Programmingcould be used as a basis for ASIS product dependencyFermi-lab’s UPS/UPD [?] or in Depot-Lite [?], which pean Laboratory for Particle Physics, 1990.dled. We are studying possible solutions as proposed in ment setup. Technical report, CERN, the Euro

Software interdependencies are at present not hanmended standard for unix workstation environ

news domain name, etc.[12] Rainer Toebbicke and Philippe Defert. Recom

age which contains the location of the news server. the

Science, 1988.jected like for instance the CER.N/ 11ews—co11;f ig packCarnegie Mellon University, School of ComputerFor instance, all CERN customisations could be re

software upgrade protocol. Technical report,ing some, delaying others or modifying strategic ones.ager of a replica might also filter the transactions, refus [111 Stephen Shafer and Mary Thompson. The sup

last transactions will need to be checked. The manceedings, pages 21-44. Usenix, . 1991.

and remote sites, since only files changed during theenvironment: The xhier approach. In LISA VProlow an optimal management of repositories on local

[101 John Sellens. Software maintenance in a campusAt the same time, the transaction system should al

problems should no longer occur. LISA VIII Proceedings, pages 83-91, 1994.When our transaction system will be in place. such lite: A mechanism for managing software. Inusing "l0cks", which sometimes results in a dead—1ock. [91 John R Rouillard and Richsrd B. Martin. DepotSynchronisation of all management processes is done

dison Wesley, 1994.

[81 John K. Ousterhout. Tcl and the Tk Toolkit. Ad6 Future Developments

<philippe . defert@cer11 . ch>.

Software Engineering. His electronic mail address isject of this paper. His present research interests includethis environment, he manages the ASIS Project, subin the Distributed Computing Infrastructure Group. Inputing and Networks Division of CERN specifically

tron Positron Collider, he is now a member of the Com

and implement the control system of the Large Elecysis Scientist. After having moved to CERN to designGarching bei Muenchen (Germany) as ST Data AnalSpace Telescope European Coordinating Facilities inpean Southem Observatory between 1984 and 1987 inversity of Namur (Belgium). He worked at the EuroPhD in Applied Mathematics in 1983 from The Unifrom the Free University of Brussels in 1975 and a

Ph. Defert received an MSc in Computer Science<michel.g0ossens@cem.ch>.

national TEX Users’ Group TUG. He can be mailed atGroup GUTenberg, and since 1995 also of the Interhe is President of the French-speaking TEX Users`Companion (Addison-Wesley 1994) and since 1994Acrobat. He is the co-author of a book The BTEXing online hypertext documentation, like WWW andto facilitate using sources of documents for generatcently his main interest is the development of toolsand FrameMaker, PostScript, SGML and HTML. Reseveral typesetting systems, more in particular I£=TEXand documentation. Over the years he worked withually more involved in the field of text processingand up-to-date documentation, and thus became gradlems. Soon he came to realize the importance of goodware support working on memory management proba Fellow on a muon experiment, he moved to softthe beginning of 1979. After working two years asUniversity of Brussels (Belgium) he joined CERN at