PackMan User's Guide (changes)

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What is PackMan?

PackMan is the packaging system used to distribute updates to the RISC OS Pi disc image. It is also capable of upgrading your system with just a few clicks, with downloading, installing and replacing files all handled for you. The aim is to take the hard work out of setting up and managing your system, particularly one with lots of software.

PackMan also gives access to a selection of software that has been pre-packaged for automatic installation. This aspect of PackMan is still at an early stage, and work remains in getting the infrastructure up so that software authors can create such packages and pass them to the system to distribute.

PackMan is based on the foundations of an earlier packaging system called RiscPkg, but with a more friendly user interface (for example, the ability to move installed programs wherever you like). This means programs previously packaged for RiscPkg can be installed with PackMan. Packaging is a relatively new concept to mainstream RISC OS, and there are plenty of wrinkles still to be ironed out, so please bear with us.

How do I…?

Upgrade my system

Run !PackMan. Click Menu over the iconbar icon, click ‘Update lists’. This checks the server to see if any new programs are available. If there are, you can click ‘Upgrade all’. Updates will be automatically downloaded and installed. ‘Update lists’ is also important to do before you install new software, so that you know you are getting the latest version.

Install/uninstall a program

Click on the PackMan iconbar icon. You’re shown a list of the programs available. Select a program. You can click the ‘i’ button for information on the package. Click the tick icon on the toolbar to install it. The cross icon will uninstall an existing program.

Move a program somewhere else

First install the program as above. Then select it in the list, and click the ‘inspect package’ (box and magnifying glass) button. This will show you the applications contained inside. Click Menu over one of these, then look for the option ‘Move’ and you can drag the program wherever you want. You can also create a link to the program, so you can run it from another place without moving it – perhaps you want to keep a copy with each set of working documents for that program. Moved and linked programs will continue to benefit from upgrades, while copying or moving a program with the Filer will prevent future upgrades working (the program itself, however, should be fine).

Other resources, such as system files, cannot be moved (through the GUI) at this time.

What do all the symbols next to the program names mean?

• A green tick means a program has already been installed.
• A green tick with an A underneath means a program has been installed because another program needed it – so it was installed automatically.
• A yellow tick means an update is available for this program

PackMan asked if I wanted to back up a file?

PackMan makes a note of the files it installed, which are the files it knows are safe to replace and delete during upgrades. If you install a package that is going to replace a file you already installed by other means, or was supplied on the disc image but not as part of a package, PackMan doesn’t know what to do about that file. So it offers to backup the file before it replaces it. It will be moved into a Backup directory in the same place as the file was previously found.

In the ‘Advanced’ section of the iconbar menu you can see a list of these backups, and delete or restore them as you wish.

PackMan’s wasting my disc space!

PackMan keeps a cache of package files it downloaded, so that you have all the old versions in case you need them. If this takes up too much space, ‘Cache’ on the Advanced iconbar submenu can clear this out.

How do I add another software source?

From time to time you may find you wish to add software sources that aren’t included in the mainline distribution. For example, the developers of the NetSurf browser offer(ed) an automatic daily build of the latest source code. This enables you to receive automatic upgrades to the most recent version available, complete with today’s bugs.

PackMan uses lists of packages called repository index files to find out about available software. These give details of the packages available, version numbers, descriptions and so on, and a link to the package.

You can add other software sources to PackMan by adding links to index files to the Sources section of the ‘Advanced’ iconbar submenu. Some of the software sources are described on packages.riscosopen.org .
Be warned that such testing software might break your system!

How do I make new packages?

See the RISC OS Packaging Guide.

I want to manually install a program

Packages provided through PackMan are necessarily structured in such a way that PackMan can automatically install and upgrade them. However, if you want to manually install a package you can do that. The package info window in PackMan gives the URL to the package, or you can find it inside the repository index file. Packages are simply Zip files which you can download and unpack with an unzip tool such as SparkFS. Note, however, that manually-installed packages will not update and software authors may be less willing to support you if you’re using an out-of-date version.

How does PackMan differ from !Store?

!Store is a shop window for commercial software, and also offers free software. It differs from PackMan in that it downloads software for you, but relies on the user to install and maintain it. That means upgrades may be offered, but you have to handle moving the files manually. Some users prefer the control this gives, while others prefer a tool like PackMan to handle this for them. You can mix and match both tools as you wish.