EPM

From the EPM homepage:

EPM is a free UNIX software/file packaging program that generates distribution archives from a list of files.

EPM Can:

• Generate portable script-based distribution packages complete with installation and removal scripts and standard install/uninstall GUIs.
• Generate "native" distributions in AIX, BSD, Debian, HP-UX, IRIX, MacOS X, Red Hat, Slackware, Solaris, and Tru64 UNIX formats.
• Provide a complete, cross-platform software distribution solution for your applications.

Are you proposing to use it to build the TWiki distro packages?

-- CrawfordCurrie - 06 Mar 2005

i'm not (currently) proposing using EPM to build the TWiki distro package. at the suggestion on InstallationScripts, i decided to look into EPM for the purpose of building a native MacOS X installer package; that half a dozen other architectures fell out of it is perhaps just a secondary benefit (at least to me )

these EPM scripts act as a wrapper of sorts; all it does is place the installation files (ie, the TWikiKernel (s), TWikiExtensions, a local CPAN mirror, etc.), and then invoke the second stage installer (TWikiInstallerContrib)

-- WillNorris - 23 Mar 2005

If so, how do Windows distros get built?

-- CrawfordCurrie - 06 Mar 2005

don't know, don't care however, here are a few thoughts on the matter:

• as EPM generates shell scripts, it should be possible to use them to install from CygWin. now, this isn't mentioned anywhere on the EPM website, so i suspect that it doesn't currently work, but it would seem to me to not be so hard to make work for someone who does windows
• EPM installer scripts aren't a requirement as you can (still) (simply) untar the distro and manually run the installer script from the command line.

-- WillNorris - 23 Mar 2005

Why did you re-import the GNU license? It is already in LICENSE

-- CrawfordCurrie - 06 Mar 2005

i re-imported the GPL because there are explicit line breaks in the text file, whereas the installers do word-wrapping. so, the default plain text version didn't look very good in the installer's dialog box---that's all, it's a purely cosmetic "change".

-- WillNorris - 23 Mar 2005

Surely the README should be alongside LICENSE, COPYRIGHT and COPYING, in the root dir?

-- CrawfordCurrie - 06 Mar 2005

yes, this is a problem. i'm not happy with my "solution" (there isn't really a solution at this point, i just needed a LICENSE file for the installer dialog box). i can't (directly) use the ones in a TWikiKernel, as several TWikiKernels might be present in the distro (eg, i typically bundle up http://twiki.org/swd/TWiki20040902.tar.gz along with the latest DevelopBranch version)

i hope this clears some things up, though i clearly "owe" you more documentation on the TWikiInstallerContrib

-- WillNorris - 23 Mar 2005