Packaging

Hi all,

I’ve been out of the loop for some time, but now I’m trying to distribute up to date versions of various bits of software I’ve produced over the years.

As well as sorting out my web site, I wanted to distribute things via packages. Is this still the preferred option? The RO packing project web site appears to be down – is it still maintained? Is it preferable to host packages on RISC OS Open’s site?

Thanks :)

I’d try !Store (google plingstore), it’s much simpler and easier for both developer and user.

Coincidentally I was trying to get reacquainted with PackMan and the RiscPkg site being down, be that be design or accident, didn’t help. Some package management has moved into ROOL’s sphere and that is where I eventually found !PackMan itself, which then turned out to be an old version, 0.7 beta, I cannot find the latest !PackMan 0.8.4. At which point the Pi stiffed itself!

I’ve been out of the loop for some time, but now I’m trying to distribute up to date versions of various bits of software I’ve produced over the years.

Hi Rik
There is a revival of an old thread over in the Wishlist forum about your Toolbox tools and wanting to integrate it into the ROOL sources.
If this is still okay, would you be willing to do this for the RISC OS Community?

I cannot find the latest !PackMan 0.8.4. At which point the Pi stiffed itself!

Do you have these urls in your Packman sources?

pkg http://packages.riscosopen.org/packages/pkg/programs-armv5
pkg http://packages.riscosopen.org/packages/pkg/programs-armv7

Do you have these urls in your Packman sources?

Yes, they are there by default in the PackMan I found. A simple inspection of the two files above shows that neither has any PackMan at all, the out of date 0.7-4 I did find was at http://packages.riscosopen.org/packages/AdministrationDetails.html

This PackMan 0.8.4 page contains a dead link to the download.

It appears that www.riscpkg.org is down at the moment. I’ve sent an email to the site maintainer to let him know.

ROOL now have a system to fetch packages from your website and host them and add them to the indices mentioned by Chris Johnson and I’d recommend that as the best way to add new or updated packages.

If anyone has some spare web space I can use, I’d quite like to move my packages (including PackMan) so they can use the ROOL system as the maintainer of the riscpkg site isn’t as active in RISC OS any more as far as I can tell.

I’d try !Store (google plingstore), it’s much simpler and easier for both developer and user.

As I’m the author of PackMan, I try not to comment on !Store in relation to PackMan normally, but I thought I should make a few comments just so people don’t dismiss PackMan out of hand.

!Store does have a slight edge on being easier to set up for the developer. But I believe PackMan isn’t that far behind. Also once you get through the initial learning curve of creating a package, it’s not difficult to update it for new versions. The !PackIt program also helps in creating the packages to reduce the learning curve.

I’m not sure the user interface is dramatically better in !Store, but I’m biased. The main thing is that current PackMan is an installer that means it will install the package where you tell it and sort out any dependencies for you where !Store is just a catalogue and shop. The extra functionality in PackMan does mean the interface isn’t as clean.

!Store of course has the advantage of the backing of a commercial company and more time to develop and improve it, where with PackMan development is much slower.

Personally, I hope that people will consider adding their software to both !Store and PackMan. I seriously considered stopping work on PackMan when !Store came along, but the feedback I received made me believe that there is a place for both systems.

As always, if you are having any trouble with packaging for PackMan, my email address is in the !Help file and I’m always willing to help.

Personally, I hope that people will consider adding their software to both !Store and PackMan.

I agree. The learning curve for Store was less daunting but the functionality (particularly dependency) of PackMan is better. Packman’s real problem was (in its original form) that it decided where things went and used subdirectories in Apps which meant some stuff was therefore invisible. I used subdirectories in Apps and Utilities to put version updates for things. I haven’t yet got around to using Packman in its latest version.

If anyone has some spare web space I can use, I’d quite like to move my packages (including PackMan) so they can use the ROOL system as the maintainer of the riscpkg site isn’t as active in RISC OS any more as far as I can tell.

How much would that entail (storage). I have several of my own packages on my web site, and the ROOL package server visits it each night to check for changes, so new versions or additions are picked up within a day or so.

I would be willing to add say Packman and Packit, but I am not sure I have enough unused space to add much more.

I would be willing to add say Packman and Packit, but I am not sure I have enough unused space to add much more.

Thanks for the offer Chris. I won’t need your space after all as I was contacted to let me know that apparently I already have some webspace.

There is now a version of PackMan 0.8.4 on the autobuilder that can be downloaded while www.riscpkg.org is down. I’ve updated my PackMan web page (https://sites.google.com/site/alansriscosstuff/packman) to fetch this version.

It would be nice if any apps installed via store that were also packaged, were then managed by packman.

(Whether by !Store putting them in the right place, or by it calling the !Riscpkg system).

It would be really nice if !Store dealt with unpackaged apps, commercial apps, and release versions of mainstream packaged apps, and packman dealt with keeping everything up to date, (and also had a full catalog of packaged apps).