Re: More an autopackage

[Michael Sweet]

Geoffrey Wossum wrote:
> ...
> the job right now.  For instance, our packages are supposed to
> have a pre-install script that does a click-through agreement.
> I've tried to explain that you can tell the package system (rpm,
> at least) not to run pre-install scripts and therefore it probably
> wouldn't hold up in court. But anyway, the powers that be want that
> pre-install script capability, which epm doesn't seem to support. 

Actually, you could probably steal the script stuff from the
portable.c file that shows the license agreement.  I wouldn't wait
for the response (that would break GUI installers), but at least
you can cat out the license agreement to the screen...

> ...
> generates the epm list file.  It's double work, but eventually
> autopkg would get support for "native" package systems.  Then
> later autopkg will be able to scan Makefile/Makefile.am/some_file
> to automatically generate its install info file.

We're hoping to extend EPM in v3.0 to support sub-packages and
other things so that you can utilize more of the
RPM/Debian/PKG/DEPOT/INST capabilities.  We also have some beta
patches that add AIX support (probably go into 2.4), so the list
file approach may give you the best bang for the buck, and you
won't have to worry so much about dealing with the subtleties of
RPM, etc.

FWIW, here is a quick rundown of what we're planning to add in
future releases of EPM:

    2.3 (to be released this week)

    - Better init.d script location for RPM distributions
      (makes them portable to multiple Linux dists)
    - Better directory and config file support for HP-UX
    - Variable definition in list files (e.g. "$prefix=/dir"),
      overridden by env or command-line options.

    2.4 and beyond

    - AIX packager support
    - Better wildcard support (for directories as well as files)
    - Pre-install commands
    - Better config file support for packagers that don't know
      what a config file is.
    - Better dependency support (version numbers as well as
      packages)
    - Sub-package support (e.g. package and package-devel, or
      package and package.devel, etc.)
    - BSD-style install script that builds list files for you.

-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Michael Sweet, Easy Software Products                  address@hidden
Printing Software for UNIX                       http://www.easysw.com