PackMan package manager 0.9.5 beta released

PackMan version 0.9.5 beta is now available.

The main reason for this release is to clear up some issues that were
discovered with the 0.9.2 release and the first attempts to fix them
in the 0.9.3 & 0.9.4 release.

If you have installed 0.9.2, 0.9.3 or 0.9.4 you are strongly advised
to upgrade to 0.9.5.

If the 0.9.5 release doesn’t appear when you do an update lists in
your current version of PackMan you may need to download it again from
the page mentioned below.

Package Maintainers, the new Enviroment field now has a new
arm32 bit environment for 32 bit RISC OS machines (e.g. The
Iyonix onwards) and the arm environment has had the wording updated
to make it clear it is for assembler/compiled code that is
26/32 neutral.

A brief description of the new Environment field can be found at.
https://sites.google.com/site/alansriscosstuff/packaging/environment

If you already have a previous version of !PackMan or !RiscPkg
installed you can install it or upgrade it from either of
these programs (but see the note above for 0.9.2, 0.9.3 or 0.9.4).

The latest versions of PackMan are now distributed via the ROOL packaging
sites. RiscPkg and the older versions of PackMan may not have these
sources in the list of sources. If this version of PackMan doesn’t appear
as an update in your browser you probably need to add the following url
to the PackMan sources.
http://packages.riscosopen.org/packages/pkg/programs-armv5

Otherwise go to https://sites.google.com/site/alansriscosstuff/packman
for download and installation instructions.

Along with PackMan the following resource/packages have been updated.

PackIt 0.6.3. The package creater helper to include the arm32 field.
LibPkg 0.8.3. The packaging back end library to fix the various issues.
RiscPkg-Policy 0.6.0.1. The packaging policy manual, also provided as
a link at the end of this Announcement.
Packagers please note – PackMan uses this version of the policy manual
as Standards-Version 0.6.0.0.

PackMan is a package manager front end for packages distributed
using an enhanced version of the format released with the
RISC OS Packaging Project (see http://www.riscpkg.org).

Its features include:

- Summary and detailed description of the packages
- Filters to allow display of packages for a specific category,
what’s installed, what’s new or upgrades to already installed
packages.
- Search for a package.
- Single buttons to start an install, upgrade or removal of a package.
- Menu option to upgrade all your packages at once.
- Automatically install dependencies for you, always showing what
is going to be installed.
- Install multiple packages at once.
- Install the components from a packages to your own location.
- Display the packages relevant for your machine or warn the package
owner has not set the environment.

PackMan is open source software and it’s source code is on GitHub.
Suggestions/Contributions are always welcome. This doesn’t have to
be code, previously graphics, window layout and documentation fixes
have been contributed.

System requirements

RISC OS 4.0 or greater with long filenames
Internet connection for downloading packages

The normal RISC OS Packaging project policy manual has not been
updated with the new fields yet. The latest version can be downloaded
using !PackMan or viewed at:
http://www.riscos.info/~abuckley/policy.html