Hi Antony, > In FreeDOS 1.1 (or whatever) once the directories are finalized, a > system variable can be declared in the OS (at the master environment > level) like in Windows NT/2000/XP called SYSTEMROOT. On my Windows > machine it's C:\WINDOWS. For FreeDOS it can be C:\FDOS. Then the other
This is already the case. The installer puts a set ...=... in the config or autoexec which does indeed point to c:\fdos if you use the default install target directory :-). > directories (with the exception of \APPS and \SOURCE) could but > placed under there. Installing a package with FDPKG or FDUPDATE or the TEXTINST installer essentially does exactly that: Go to the c:\fdos (or whatever is the current install target) directory and then unzip the package there :-). The process also looks for a few files with fixed name in the zip. Those include: - A text file which lists dependencies: Which packages must not be installed at the same time, which packages must be installed if you want to install this package, and which packages are recommended to be installed along with this. - A batch file for update preparation: For example this can delete something exe if the old version used exe and the new version contains something com instead. - A batch file for install postprocessing: This batch script is typically used to add things to config / autoexec, like set ...=... lines or lines to load drivers at each boot. - A batch file for uninstall processing: This is typically a used to delete things like config files which were not in the zip (uninstall always removes the files which were in the zip at the time when you installed the package) but which were generated when using / installing the package. I think the scripts do not yet remove lines from autoexec or config again. > Are there plans in the works to standardize the install process? See above - there already is some de facto standard :-) > Some sort of API of routines, or skeletal installer that would > use these directory rules. With all this discussion, it would > probably be easier to put together an installer API for FreeDOS > that can process a script to install apps to make this setup > work better. An installer already exists, but there is no API. You just call the installer program from another program or batch file... :-) Eric ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace. It's the best place to buy or sell services for just about anything Open Source. http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;164216239;13503038;w?http://sf.net/marketplace _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
