[Cialug] Free Codeweavers

[Zachary Kotlarek]

On Oct 29, 2008, at 11:12 AM, Matthew Nuzum wrote:

> Is there a simpler way to install and configure a piece of
> software in one step?


I generally install packages either with:
	tar -jxf package.tar.bz2 -C /favorite/install/prefix
or:
	rpm -i package.rpm
and I'm sure there are other similar possibilities.

The objection I have to archive-in-shell-script packaging is that  
there's no way to see what it's going to install -- you just have to  
run it and hope it doesn't do something stupid. How do I know their  
script isn't going to install some new binary called `cat` in one of  
my default paths. Sure, /bin is at the beginning of my $PATH, but I'd  
rather not rely on that. And I'd rather not have their main program  
fail in mysterious ways because it assumes that `cat` is their silly  
program and not the usual `cat`.

I've actually installed software before that contained binaries with  
short names that conflicted with standard system tools. It was not a  
fun time, and it would have been much easier to detect and avoid if  
there were some way to see what it was going to do (or had already  
done -- a parsable packaging format is useful for forensic analysis as  
well).

	Zach

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