Kyle McDonald wrote: > Dave Miner wrote: >> Kyle McDonald wrote: >>> Which suggestion? >>> >>> Did the old installer create a JumpStart profile and then call >>> pfinstall? >>> >> >> Yes, it did. >> > Oh wow. I didn't know that. Why didn't it leave the profile around where > it could be reused, or if it did why wasn't that documented? >>> While a hared library could eliminate most of the duplication between >>> an interactive installer, and an Automated one. It seemed like >>> (given that one requirement of the interactive one was to ask all >>> questions upfront befroe starting the install) having the interactive >>> GUI create an AI profile, and call AI, would also eliminate >>> duplication (and therefore QA and bug-fixing costs) Not to mention it >>> would actually 'test' the profile generated by using it. >>> >> >> A simple installer such as the GUI isn't going to test anything >> interesting; we'll write real test cases for testing. In general, >> yes, any install path will be generating an internal representation >> equivalent to an automated installation profile and using the >> appropriate interfaces from there; they'll mostly be common. > I agree that the simple installer isn't going to create complicated > profiles. What I meant by 'testing', is that the user would know without > a doubt that the profile left behind by the installer would definitely > recreate the install, because it *had actually been used* to do the > original install. > > There's a difference between saying: > > "Here's what I used to do the install, use it if you want to repeat it." > > and > > "I used something thing else, but this should recreate it if you need to." >
A profile that's in a file can't account for all environmental factors that are not represented in it (and they do exist), so your argument is fallacious in its assumption. Please don't take my reference to an internal representation with meaning that "something else" was used, when the only profile that matters is the internal representation that is used in driving the components that effect the install. If a file representation arrives at the same internal representation as the original input to an interactive interface, then they're the same, as far as you can possibly determine or care about. Dave
