Sender: richdawe AT bigfoot DOT com
Message-ID: <3739D966.ADE9216A@bigfoot.com>
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 20:41:26 +0100
From: Richard Dawe <richdawe AT bigfoot DOT com>
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To: djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com
Subject: DJGPP installer [Was: Script language for installer]
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Reply-To: djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com

Hello.

I started writing a DJGPP Package Manager (dgpppm) a while ago in the
style of rpm. I got fed up of typing "ls $DJDIR/manifest/* | grep
<package>". So far it only supports queries, like so:

	djgpppm -q sed -i
or:	djgpppm -q -a
etc. (like rpm)

Since my first idea, it's ballooned a bit. I intend to add the following
features, with a syntax close to rpm's:

1. Install from ZIP files
2. Uninstall
3. FTP/HTTP download from Simtelnet, using libsocket
4. Built in ZIP decompressor using zlib

I think (4) would solve the problem encountered earlier by Laurynas
Biveinis (LB) and others with LBInstDJ about hacking the registry to
set/unset NameNumericTail. We should be able to choose the output filename
=> force it to fit 8+3 convention.

(3) would only work under Windows 3.x (probably, but untested) and Windows
'95 & '98.

(1) requires some kind of dependency database to work well, e.g.

[lsck073s]
dependent=gcc([0-9]{1,})b
dependent=mak{[0-9]{1,})b
dependent=shl([0-9]{1,})b

Here the dependencies are given by regular expressions. Also, as mentioned
earlier, the order of installation is important, e.g.

[foo1234b]
before=fxx1234b
after=dev1234b

could be used to specify installation before fxx1234b, but after dev1234b.
I guess djgpppm could download a new version of its database, when it's
FTP support is added. The package manager would also keep a reference
count of all the installed files, to stop incorrect removal of a file.

My intention is not for djgpppm to replace LBInstDJ, but to supplement it.
I think the scripting language/dependency database should have the same
format.

Also, has anyone thought of adopting the use of a DJGPP Software Map
(.dsm) in every archive? This too could go in $DJDIR/manifest/. The Linux
Software Map layout could probably be used directly. It would save having
to dig around in READMEs, etc., and could be compiled into a nice index on
the DJGPP web site.

BTW can anyone think of a better name than djgpppm, as it's a bit of
mouthful - zippo maybe?

Bye,

-- 
==========================================================================
       Rich Dawe - 4th-year MSci Physicist @ Bristol University, UK
         richdawe AT bigfoot DOT com, http://www.bigfoot.com/~richdawe/
==========================================================================