Autopackage 1.2.1 review
Downloadautopackage allows developers to produce "install anywhere" packages for 3rd party Linux software
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autopackage allows developers to produce "install anywhere" packages for 3rd party Linux software. The resulting packages support both graphical and terminal frontends, support dependency checking and resolution, and use deep desktop integration.
Additionally, tools to enhance the packaged software such as binreloc and relaytool are provided. By providing an autopackage, developers can ensure their users always have an easy way of installing the latest release of their software.
autopackage is stable, tested software that has been deployed by high profile projects. It has a strong commitment to backwards compatibility: your packages will continue to install as we add new features, although you may need to recompile them to get the new functionality.
Version 1.0 can build, install, verify and uninstall fairly complex packages (mplayer, gaim, inkscape etc), and promises backwards compatibility from this point forward.
Autopackage can resolve dependencies either from local files or from remote servers. It currently has simple support for package updates. It does not support integration with the native package manager although these features are planned for after the 1.0 release.
Here are some key features of "autopackage":
Build packages that will install on many different distros
Multiple front ends: best is automatically chosen so GUI users get a graphical front end, and command line users get a text based interface
Multiple language support (both in tools and for your own packages)
Automatically verifies and resolves dependencies no matter how the software was installed. This means you don't have to use autopackage for all your software, or even any of it, for packages to succesfully install.
What's New in This Release:
_loadPackageEnvironment() giving terminal output with empty $TIMESTAMPINSTALL value - appeared with switch to Standard time.
installLib() was not rebuilding cache with ldconfig command.
escapeFilename() was not scoped globally for '$' character.
apgcc: Allow the replacement of -I flags passed to apgcc with ones from $APBUILD_INCLUDE. For example /opt/kde/include=/home/taj/kde-includes/3.3 replaces -I/opt/kde/include with -I/home/taj/kde-includes/3.3. This is only useful for apps where include path order is important.
Mandriva desktop menus were not appearing.
removeLinkerCacheEntry() was probing the system for shared objects which always generated output so no linker entries are ever removed.
Autopackage 1.2.1 keywords