Re: packaging system

[Søren Hauberg]

Stefan van der Walt wrote:
[snip]
> I might have missed it, but how do we intend to keep an index of all
> functions installed?  Something that can aid in listing the contents
> of toolboxes etc.  Paul Kienzle proposed the INDEX format, currently
> used my Octave Forge -- it might be worth taking a look at it, or
> using something similar.
The current implementation (which might be far from the right solution) 
is desinged with simplicity, not power, in mind. A package is installed 
into it's own directory called OCTAVE_PACKAGE_PREFIX/PACKAGE-VERSION, so 
 there's no need to keep track on files, only directories. The 
installation path is written to ~/.octave-packages. To uninstall you 
simply delete the directory, and remove the corresponding line from 
~/.octave-packages. This file is also used to handle dependencies at 
install-time.

Perhaps this approach is to simple? How much power should a package 
creator have?

/Søren

P.S. Where can I get some information on the INDEX format

> Regards
> Stefan
>
>
> > Stefan van der Walt wrote:
> >
> > > I still think that something like a pre- and post-install script would
> > > be useful.  Why stop at being able to modify the installation prefix?
> > > Why not create a standard structure with all installation variables,
> > > populated before installation starts.
> > >
> > > The installing package then has an opportunity to modify this struct
> > > in the pre-install script after which installation takes place.
> > > Afterwards, the post-install script can do any additional
> > > admin/cleanup needed while having access to that information still.
> > >
> > > Your package has everything in place to do this already.  It would
> > > just require some minor modifications.
> > >
> > > Regards
> > > Stefan
> > >
> > > On Fri, Jun 17, 2005 at 11:01:35PM +0200, S?ren Hauberg wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > > Hi
> > > > I've updated the code (it's still at http://hauberg.org/octave-package), 
> > > > with the following changes:
> > > > *) If the archive contains a directory, cd to that directory. This means 
> > > > that package can keep it's files in a directory (e.g. PACKAGE-VERSION).
> > > > *) A bit more error checking. Not enough though
> > > > *) Support for uninstallation of packages. No dependency checking is 
> > > > done during uninstallation.
> > > > *) The installation prefix is defined by the global variable 
> > > > OCTAVE_PACKAGE_PREFIX. If this variable is not defined an error is 
> > > > issued. Packages will be install in OCTAVE_VALUE_PREFIX/PACKAGE-VERSION
> > > >
> > > > As long as the packages doesn't have to many errors the code is usable 
> > > > in it's current state.
> > > >
> > > > /Søren