RE: [stellation-res] Installation requirements

["Mark C. Chu-Carroll" <mcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 2003-01-15 at 18:33, Jonathan Gossage wrote:
> > >-----Original Message-----
> > >From: stellation-res-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > >[mailto:stellation-res-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Jim Wright -
> > >IBM Research
> > >Sent: January 15, 2003 6:03 PM
> > >To: stellation-res@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > >Subject: Re: [stellation-res] Installation requirements
> > >
> > >
> > >John,
> > >
> > >Mark has asked me to look into the Windows installation puzzle, since (of
> > >the three of us here) I'm the most familiar with Windows.
> > >
> > >This may be completely lame, but bear with me.
> > >
> > >Assume we give up on the notion of a totally portable installer.  The
> > >differences between Windows and Linux installs is pretty
> > >significant (esp.
> > >for Stellation servers).  It's probably a lot easier to factor out the
> > >platform-neutral parts (Stellation jars) from the platform-specific
> > >installation scripts.
> > >
> > >Would it be reasonable to:
> > >a) pack all the redistributables into one or more
> > >self-extracting Jar files
> > >b) Use a WSH (Windows Scripting Host) script to do the
> > >Windows-specific parts:
> > >         - Display Welcome screen; prompt for acceptance of license terms
> > >         - Prompt for install location
> > >         - Unpack the jars
> > >         - Register runtime client and/or server components as needed
> > >         - Add desktop and/or Start Menu shortcuts, if desired.
> > >
> > >c) Use a complementary script to uninstall Stellation (invoked
> > >from Start
> > >Menu shortcut;
> > >     provided with installation-specific details (paths, components
> > >installed) from Registry
> > >     entries made during installation.
> > >
> > >Admittedly, this is hardly bulletproof, and a bit kludgy.  However, I did
> > >something fairly similar with WSH about a year ago (installing
> > >some PDFTool
> > >components I built), and I believe all the tasks listed above can be
> > >accomplished using WSH (and without installing Ant -- at worst,
> > >the end user
> > >might have to get the latest version of WSH from Microsoft, about a 750K
> > >download).
> > >
> > >Note: I'm assuming that installation of Firebird (or another db)
> > >is outside
> > >the scope of the WSH-based Stellation install.  We should
> > >certainly provide
> > >installation instructions:
> > >* Install Firebird first (here's how)
> > >* When Firebird is running, install Stellation
> > >    - Download/Install WSH if necessary (get .exe from MS and run it)
> > >    - Download/Install Stellation (download jar(s) and a couple
> > >of scripts;
> > >      run the scripts, answer the prompts and you're done)
> > >
> > >This way, the Linux jocks can make beautiful Penguin-oriented scripts
> > >without having to learn about Redmond rituals, and vice versa;
> > >everyone can
> > >use the same set of Stellation deliverables from within their
> > >installation
> > >incantations; and happiness should reign.
> > >
> > >I think this approach should work for a no-frills installation;
> > >if someone
> > >wants to build a better installer later, they're more than welcome too.
> > >
> > >Comments ?
> > >
> > >- Jim
> > >
> 
> I have fouund a open source cross-platform Java installer that looks as if
> it might come very close to meeting our needs and, since it is open source,
> we can tweak it if necessary.
> 
> Take a look at
> 
>  http://sourceforge.net/projects/vainstall/
> 
> and see what you think. I havn't done anything about it yet because I had a
> number of other things I wanted to complete first.

It's GPL. We have to be very careful about how we use any GPLed. I'll
have to double-check with the Eclipse legal types to make sure it's not
a problem for us to use a GPLed installer.

> BTW I also have a Windows service launcher that we can use to launch
> Stellation as a Windows server.It is also open source and we use it at work
> for our products.

What license?

	-Mark

-- 
Mark Craig Chu-Carroll,  IBM T.J. Watson Research Center  
*** The Stellation project: Advanced SCM for Collaboration
***		http://www.eclipse.org/stellation
*** Work: mcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx/Home: markcc@xxxxxxxxxxx