[Tclish-devel] Re: [TCLCORE] TIP#55 - trial repository

[Akos P. <ak...@pi...>]

On 31 Aug 2001 12:25:24 +1000, Steve Cassidy wrote:
> Taking on the suggestion that TIP55 should consider the form of a repository 
> and the installation mechanism I've been putting together some code to trial 
> this idea.  I've packaged up a small number of extensions and built a cgi 
> interface to the repository. Please visit:
> 
> http://www.shlrc.mq.edu.au/~steve/cgi-bin/cantcl.cgi

Thank you for the pioneering work, this test setup really highlights 
the big issues. 

Some random observations:

 - Bootstrapping. The installer has to be distributed with the core,
   together with an unzipper/VFS package

 - We have some nice tools to deal with ZIP files

 - It was surprising to see that nobody actually needed the
   DESCRIPTION files except Steve's script which was used to create 
   the web site index

 - Bootstrapping 2: Where to start looking for packages? 

 - Proxy support in the installer - would be nice to have

 - Multiple platforms... oh yes.

And - back to the original TIP - some conclusions, regarding file
formats:

 - ZIP is a good candidate for the archive file format
 - Separating the platforms could make installation easier
 - The DESCRIPTION file is processed when building up the 
   package depot, and it is not touched during installation

Finally, considering a hypothetical Very Advanced Installer, some 
things I miss from the original proposal:

 - An index, which lists available packages in a depot
 - Optional pre- and postinstall scripts
 - Dependencies
 - An up-to-date list of mirror depots


So let's get dirty; here is how I imagine a Tcl package depot:

 index.tcl                    (depot contents for the installer)
 mirrors.tcl                  (list of mirror depots)
 packages/
   bwidget/
     1.3.1/
       description.xml        (or .txt or .tcl...)
       preinstall.tcl         (pre-install script, optional)
       postinstall.tcl        (post-install script, optional)
       dependencies.tcl       (dependencies script, optional)
       common.zip             (platform-independent stuff, optional)
       i386-linux-generic.zip (platform dependent files, optional)
       i386-windows-nt.zip
       ...                    (more platforms)
     ...                      (more versions)
   ...                        (more packages)

As of what's in the ZIP files: I don't care! Whatever needs to 
be there for making the package work (assuming the ZIPs are 
extracted to the package directory, somewhere on the Tcl library
path). At least a pkgIndex.tcl in common.zip or in the platform 
ZIPs.

 - Akos.

-- 
Akos Polster		
mailto:ak...@pi...
http://akos.pipacs.com