Hi,
--- Maarten Bosma <maarten.paul(a)bosma.de> wrote:
> As you might remember firk85 and me have started coding a package
> manager for ReactOS. More information and a download linkcan be found on
> the wiki on http://wiki.reactos.com/PackageManager .
>
> Since it is now so far that it is at least a bit useful, I'd like to ask
> what you think of adding it to the svn-tree ?
MSI already does everything you want to do. Add support for loading MSI packages by developing
your application on Windows and then it should work in ReactOS as we share msi.dll and msiexec
with wine. Vendors can already use Wix to package thier applications. For bonus points make it tie
in nicely with NSIS.
Thanks
Steven
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Hi,
--- Maarten Bosma <maarten.paul(a)bosma.de> wrote:
> I missed to introduce a concept of the package manager here. Packages
> are not a Archive file with an instruction for installing like apt
> packages. The more an instruction to download the program, that might be
> running the setup with a special parameter or downloading an arrive
> file with the binaries. That is a little bit of BSD ports or Gentoo Emerge.
>
> This is why I think MSI files aren't the right think to replace the
> basic based scripts, that are used at the moment. It simply not what
> they have been made for. But if the vendor of the application provides a
> msi file of cause it can be used; with a "msi"-script-command.
I think the idea of a central repository containting information on Free(Open) Win32 is a good
idea.
Thanks
Steven
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Hi,
--- Jonathan Wilson <jonwil(a)tpgi.com.au> wrote:
> Why not?
> Its perfectly possible to include a CPL program on the same CD or zip file
> as a GPL program as long as they dont directly mix code (IANAL but this is
> what I understand). Linux distributions mix and match code of all different
> licences and get away with it.
Because we have developed this project like Debian or FreeBSD though we have a "Unspoken Social
Contract" GPL incompatible software will not be mixed in the same package or on the same medium as
GPL compatible software. I am perfectly happy to have WiX or any other OSS package shipped with
ReactOS on a Non-Free CD. It does not mean that I view the CPL as Non-Free, far from it, but in
the GPLs current incarnation it has been deamed GPL-incompatible. Maybe the GPL v3 will address
these issues and we can even ship WiX in the same package/cd as ReactOS but I still would rather
not have ReactOS become dependant on code developed by Microsoft as it may make them rethink the
idea of Freeing other packages in the future.
I would rather link, provide downloads to (apart from the main ReactOS package), and ship it on a
"extras" CD.
Thanks
Steven
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--- Maarten Bosma <maarten.paul(a)bosma.de> wrote:
> If I understood you correctly you said that there is no need for
> developing a compleatly new system, a Packagemanager only had to provide
> a interface for the msi files.
Right, You can interface directly to the MSI database in the registry.
> First of all, I have to say that I don't know much about that msi stuff.
> So my question is how would the msi file and the program communicte ?
> The point with a packagemanager is that you choose to install lots of
> packages and leave your PC alone. So the package manager had to send the
> dessions of the user to the msi file and then the msi file had to do
> it's operations senlitly. And send reports to the package manager from
> time to time. And if something went wrong, it has to send a compleate
> error report.
Well MSI packages have a lot of options, more so than are used by most people. Most people just
write a Install Shield wizard and have the software packaged in a msi but it can do self-repair
and modification and all sorts of cool stuff. Most third partys now ship apps as MSI as its what
Microsoft supports or they use NullSoft Install System so making a easy to use interface to both
of them will win the most support. Its like a mini-sql database so you can even use XML to mess
with it in your Package Manager. If I understand correctly the Microsoft tool for creating MSI
packages "WiX", uses a xml file for input. The only problem is that WiX is CPL and not GPL so we
cannot ship it with ReactOS unless we make it a seperate download.
Thanks
Steven
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