getting started with osgi + felix

Question

Which packages of Felix do I need to get started? There are a zillion of them on the downloads page.

(p.s. is the name a reference to the Odd Couple + in contrast to OSGI's "Oscar" reference framework? this occurred to me after reading one of the tutorial pages & I got a chuckle out of it.)

Answer 1

You just need to download the "main" distribution at:
http://apache.mirror.clusters.cc/felix/felix-1.8.0.tar.gz (it is the first download link)

Unzip it, enter in the felix-1.8.0 directory and type
$ java -jar bin/felix.jar

The Felix console will appear, type "help" to get started

Answer 2

My answer is not really about "how to", but about "where" to look.

I highly recommend OSGi and Apache Felix 3.0 Beginner's Guide by Walid Joseph Gédéon. I was using Equinox but after this book switched to Felix, it is just so well written.

Regarding felix bundles I am most commonly running Gogo Comman+Runtime+Shell, iPOJO, Log and Http (jetty/whiteboard).

P.S.: Just to add another book, that I think will become a classic - OSGI in Action. You can buy early access from manning. In combination with the Official OSGI Specs this will lay a solid foundation.