RE: Gnome/Linux Application Installer

["Ben 'The Con Man' Kahn" <xkahn cybersites com>]

	I think we're getting off topic.  :^)  Of course such a program
can be written.  But, what are the things you would want to do in an
install?  

	Well, there are two basic types of people installing software.
The admin wants everyone to be able to run the program.  (Usually) So
applications installed by the admin need to be in /opt/gnome/bin (or
whatever) and the configuration stuff needs to be accessible to everyone.  

	A user will install to their home directory and all info will be
local to them.  I don't think RPM can fully express this split at the
moment.  (That's if we want people to be able to install software as
users, I can see why this would be bad.)

	Next, there are two types of installs.  Attended, and unattended.
Certainly most software install *I* do are attended.  But when I do
unattened installs, I want it to work.  


On Wed, 23 Dec 1998, Fox, Kevin M wrote:

> Could there be a dialog program written that detects wether your in X or not
> and then displays options? That would be nice. It could be added into the
> RPM or have it installed on the box already...
> 
> I do kinda see the point redhat has with not wanting to show dialogs. This
> allows for automatic updates and other things. Hmm...
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:	Ben 'The Con Man' Kahn [SMTP:xkahn@cybersites.com]
> > Sent:	Wednesday, December 23, 1998 10:26 AM
> > To:	Fox, Kevin M
> > Cc:	'Jason Tackaberry'
> > Subject:	RE: Gnome/Linux Application Installer
> > 
> > 
> > 	That's right.  You can run a script before and after the install.
> > I think I remember this being just a shell script, so you can run any
> > program at all.  
> > 
> > 	HOWEVER, interactive input is frowned upon.  And printing things
> > to stdout is too...  (Think about the redhat installer.)  Debian allows
> > and encourages prompting. (again, if I recall correctly)  
> > 
> > 	Anyway, one thing we could do immediately would be to grab
> > stdout/stdin and put it in a small graphical dialog box. 
> > 
> > 	(An example of printing to STDOUT is the sshd install.  Give it a
> > try.)
> > 
> > On Wed, 23 Dec 1998, Fox, Kevin M wrote:
> > 
> > > From what I have read about RPMS you can have them do just about
> > anything.
> > > Thay can run programs, so you can have it come up with dialogs but for
> > ease
> > > of use, dialogs have (at least I think) never been used.
> > > 
> > > > > 	And that's just the beginning!  What if things are a little
> > more
> > > > > complex?  What if the application needs to ask questions from the
> > user
> > > > > doing the install?
> > > > 
> > > > Which is why I think some sort of scripting language would be needed.
> > > > That
> > > > way you can script dialogs for the user, and also make a more custom
> > flow
> > > > for
> > > > the install.
> > > > 
> > > > I don't know much about the guts of rpm and deb, but I doubt they
> > support
> > > > this.
> > > > We need to spec out a format that allows scripting, and is also smart
> > > > enough
> > > > to properly clean up old versions of the package (although RPM seems
> > to do
> > > > a good job of this).
> > > > 
> > > > Jason.
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > -- 
> > > >         FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions at
> > http://www.gnome.org/gnomefaq
> > > >          To unsubscribe: mail gnome-list-request@gnome.org with 
> > > >                        "unsubscribe" as the Subject.
> > > 
> > 
> > 						-Ben
> > 
> > ------------------------------------ |\      _,,,--,,_  ,) ----------
> > Benjamin Kahn                        /,`.-'`'   -,  ;-;;'
> > (212) 924 - 2220                    |,4-  ) )-,_ ) /\
> > ben@cybersites.com --------------- '---''(_/--' (_/-' ---------------
> >           Meet Linux: Forrest Gump as an operating system. 
> > 
> 
> 
> -- 
>         FAQ: Frequently-Asked Questions at http://www.gnome.org/gnomefaq
>          To unsubscribe: mail gnome-list-request@gnome.org with 
>                        "unsubscribe" as the Subject.
> 

						-Ben

------------------------------------ |\      _,,,--,,_  ,) ----------
Benjamin Kahn                        /,`.-'`'   -,  ;-;;'
(212) 924 - 2220                    |,4-  ) )-,_ ) /\
ben@cybersites.com --------------- '---''(_/--' (_/-' ---------------
          Meet Linux: Forrest Gump as an operating system.