Thirded? :P
I agree that the placement of the packages (and in my case, scripts also) is
not optimal. I want to just ping the list with a thought and then I will
devote some more time to this later ... Beware ... May ramble a bit.
I would suggest that we use a site setting/variable so that we can each
determine the placement of our files. It could be something that maps it
out for each package or just a %PKGIDPATH%. I think it might be a little
hard to get consensus from everyone on where they should all live, as some
of us with few applications will want a simple/flat structure while others
will want to really break it up. (I can see that this would get more
valuable as you need to support multiple versions of the same application,
or have fixed deployment 'images' for a specific department.)
Having said that, I wouldn't want to break any stock functionality in
Unattended. I could see us leaving things as they are -- so you use the
prepare script to get everything to start, then a rearrange to move it where
you want it ... The complication comes in wanting adobe_reader_package in
/packages/viewers/adobe/... And java in /packages/java/
Hmmm, perhaps this would work --
Perhaps naming/versioning of packages. So you would have something like:
:: Install Adobe Reader
:: PKGID|ADBERDR60
::
URL|ENU|http://somedownload.com|packages/adobereader/adberdr60_enu_full.exe
:: OPTIONAL: Install Sun Java Virtual Machine
:: PKGID|SUNJRE5_0_01
:: URL|ALL|http://javadownload.blah|packages/jre1.5.0_01.msi
In the batch files from Unattended and on your site you would have a setting
that says:
DEFAULT|packages/
ADBERDR60|packages/viewers/adobe/
SUNJRE5_0_01|packages/java/
It would add some overhead, but maybe not as much as I am thinking. If
there were a front-end for this it would be even better, but we are already
stringing together an ungodly amount of scripts to get this truly marvelous
software to work.
I would like to see something like this personally. Instead of agreeing
where everything should be, let's just agree how everything should be named
and we should be good to go. In fact, the information could be added
without a *huge* change .. I think. Heck, given the format above the
prepare script could attempt to find the PKGIDPATH and if there isn't an
entry then it would fallback to default. Yeah, I can see that working.
On a side note: This addresses the package storage area, but not really the
script storage issues that may arise, Of course, that may bring forth
thoughts of an index of packages scripts rather than storing it all with
the install directives. (Although, I am a big fan of atomic configuration
information -- i.e., each install knows what it needs to be performed.)
Thoughts?
Don Morrison
-Original Message-
From: Michael Kahle [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2005 2:50 PM
To: Unattended List
Subject: [Unattended] Sugestion or Request...
Would it be possible to remove all software from the root of the
unattended/install/packages directory and instead move them to a folder
within the packages directory?
I am not trying to make noise here, but thought that others might have a
similar experience/desire as I do. I not only use unattended for
unattended installations, but also as my software repository on the
network. If someone wants a particular piece of software installed I simply
map a drive to the unattended server browse to packages and manually install
the package I want. I also store additional information in the directory
with the package, like documentation on how to do the manual install or
pdf's on how to use the software for other peoples reference.
For example, when running the prepare script it places the java jre in the
root of the packages directory. I move the install to a folder called
java and then put my documentation in the directory with the installer. I
then go to the scripts directory and modify the script that installs it to
reflect the path to where the software resides. Now when I update the
scripts from CVS with the script-update bash script, it overwrites my
changes and I have to update it all over again. I realize that I can
exclude whichever files I want to so that I don't break compatibility, but
this is not entirely convenient.
I guess what I am suggesting is some standard structure that we could use
with unattended that would clean up the packages and updates directory that
makes better sense. Perhaps even separating the packages sub directories
into something like:
/unattended/
/packages/
/commercial
/office2003
/notes
/java
/opensource
/openoffice
/pdfcreator
/freeware
/winimage
/winzip
/updates
/ie6sp1
/directx9
Humm... Looking at the above, separating packages into opensource, freeware,
commercial is kind of
