Sender: richdawe AT bigfoot DOT com
Message-ID: <373B4568.1A3F9D02@bigfoot.com>
Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 22:34:32 +0100
From: Richard Dawe <richdawe AT bigfoot DOT com>
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To: djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: DJGPP installer [Was: Script language for installer]
References: <000601be8f2e$860fc2c0$86033bd4 AT default> <3739D966 DOT ADE9216A AT bigfoot DOT com> <3739E217 DOT 9573C3D2 AT inti DOT gov DOT ar> <373A11AC DOT A657179B AT bigfoot DOT com> <199905130046 DOT UAA12825 AT envy DOT delorie DOT com>
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Reply-To: djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com

DJ Delorie wrote:
> The install program needs more information than the filename.
> Consider txi390b (3.9) vs txi312b (3.12).  Which is newer?  I'd rather
> let the install program figure out the *real* version numbers (2.1.2
> or 2.12?) and compare intelligently, than rely on ASCII sorting.

Initiallly I thought that the installer could come with a database of all
the existing packages. The people producing the new packages would be
encouraged to provide a DSM.

> For the [section] line, yes.  I still think such information should
> also be stored within the zip, so if you already have the zip you
> don't also need the tag file.  Having a separate tag file is only
> useful for web-download-installers, where you don't want to download a
> zip jut to find out you don't want it.

My intention was that it could be used for both.

I guess if we're getting really advanced, we could specify
install/uninstall scripts also.

This brings me to the problem of the 8+3 convention & numeric tails. I
found a way around the problem of LFN vs. SFNs with libsocket by having
Makefile targets that rename all the LFNs to SFNs. Obviously this needs to
be done under Win95, etc. with LFNs. Maybe this kind of functionality
could be integrated into the package manager, e.g. before reboot in DOS:

   djgpppm -sfn
or djgpppm --short-filenames

& when back in Win95:

   djgpppm -lfn
or djgpppm --long-filenames

This could then execute the appropriate scripts for each package.

Okey dokey, I'll come up with a list of possible entries for each section,
a grammar of sorts, & a DSM spec.