autopackage

Autopackage was an alternative Linux software installation system. Their purpose was a simple installation of software, regardless of the Linux distribution used. You should both users and developers make your life easier by making it possible to generate only a single package that can be installed by the user on any Linux system with a single click and delete them. Due to the possible direct distribution of software application provider has more control over product upgrade cycles. It has been successfully used by established open - source projects such as Abiword, Inkscape or Gajim.

Operation

Autopackage itself is a shell script, which contains the program to install. Except for the Bash hardly any additional software is required. If Autopackage missing on the system, the program is automatically downloaded and installed. The installation of the program is scripted and can be flexibly adapted and further automate thereby. The installation process should require virtually no user interaction. Users may also be allowed to install packages without root password. Dependencies are automatically and regardless of the package management of the root system dissolved, downloaded and installed. For better integration on the Linux desktop, there are graphical interfaces for both Qt and GTK , but also a text-based interface for terminals.

Challenges

However Autopackage some limitations, particularly in the field of binary compatibility of the Linux ecosystem, which is why its spread is manageable. As before, some problems are only partially or not at all resolved. For example, 3.4 or 4.0 generate the GNU C compiler to gcc previous versions ABI -incompatible code shows the use of the versions. This problem concerns inter alia the Qt toolkit, which is written in C .

The cooperation with the package management distribution own does not work still without friction. Thus, packages installed incorrectly identified as its own and be uninstalled by mistake in the course of change, as the other package management system, however, will notice nothing of this uninstallation believed these packages were still available and it comes in two package management to incorrect package lists.

Also the Relocate ( relocation ) of applications between different directories is not provided in Linux, paths are typically hard - coded at compile time into the application. However, the Autopackage Library binreloc solves this problem for the provision of comparable functionality of the Win32 API function GetModuleFilename () which directory relokierbare applications and libraries are possible.

History of development

Vision of the started by Mike Hearn 2002 project was also a development of Linux to a desktop platform. Technically this should be a binary-compatible platform with stable ABIs arise, similar to Windows or Mac OS, this should be cooperating with the LSB. As a further aspect, a change in focus should be held away from the already well-developed "corporate desktop " administration tools and structures, add the desktop users and their need for " simple solutions ". This should be accompanied by a sharper differentiation between application software and system software, allowing more sophisticated security measures and update cycles could be created. This broad approach has been criticized by many in the Linux community, particularly from the environment of the distributions.

2006 Hearn showed in a lecture at the Free Standard Group 's Packaging Summit Conference of the Linux Foundation to be able to move the big distributions cooperation pessimistic about the chances. He cited the competitiveness of distributions with each other, which prevents further development in the direction of cross- standards. Next criticized Hearn the dominant model of the package management directly "outdated " and as "anti- democratic":

"The whole idea of packaging / installation is bogus and leftover from the times When software which distributed on floppy disks, [ ... ] The web 'instant activation ' model is better but requires advances in client-side platforms first around streaming and security. "

Although most of the technical problems have been solved and a number of major applications used car package, it was not possible in the project to gain wider popularity. 2007 was the author of the Linux.com article Autopackage struggling to gain acceptance to the conclusion that a possible painful teaching of Autopackage project, the seeming impossibility to achieve major changes to the infrastructure of the Linux ecosystem is. Projektinitator Mike Hearn eventually switched to Google and handed over the project management of Autopackage.

2010, the project was then adjusted to reference was made to the homepage to alternative projects: Listaller, Zero Install, portablelinuxapps.org and MojoSetup. Parts of the code base was taken over by Listaller project.

Similar software projects

  • OpenPKG currently are 1478 installable software packages offered
  • Portable Linux Apps ( Klik successor )
  • Listaller
  • Zero Install
  • Tabular comparison of Autopackage properties with other approaches, Zero Install analysis, klik table.
Software maintainer GNU Lesser General Public License Application binary interface Linux Standard Base Klik (packaging method) Google Code Linux Magazine
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