[OSGeo-Discuss] osgeo4w setup.exe source code?

[Dave Patton]

On 2009/02/25 7:51 PM, Frank Warmerdam wrote:
> nicholas.g.lawrence at mainroads.qld.gov.au wrote:
>>> Hello list.
>>> Thanks everyone for the great work done with OSGeo4W.
>>> I have a strange (maybe) question. I suppose that osgeo4w setup.exe is
>>> a fork of the cygwin's setup. Is it possible to view/download its
>>> source code?
>>
>>> Thanks, Giovanni
>>
>> I have a different question.
>>
>> Is setup.exe the best way to install software on microsoft windows?
>>
>> Has Windows Installer, that is an .msi file been considered?
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_installer
>>
>> I know that my IT section has a strong preference for software
>> to be installed via .msi.
> 
> Nick,
> 
> Originally we were hopeful about being able to produce MSI files as these
> are considered to be easier for some IT departments to deploy.  But in
> the end it did not appear that MSI files provide support for many of the
> things we wanted to address.  Notably - fine grained packages, 
> dependencies,
> upgrade versioning, and only downloading the parts that are needed from the
> net.
> 
> I would like to think that the OSGeo4W .tar.bz2 package files could still
> be repackaged as MSI files for specific situations.

Frank's last sentence explains what will happen in some
organizations, no matter how the OSGeo4W 'installer'
is created.

Where I work, any product that is going to be installed
on 'more than a few' workstations has to be "packaged".

If the vendor's software (e.g. OSGeo4W) is provided as
a "setup.exe", then that will be 'exploded', and the
component parts (files, registry settings, shortcuts, etc)
are all included in an MSI file.

If the vendor supplies their software in an MSI, then we
never modify that MSI, but will always add an MST (a file
that is used during the installation to Transform the MSI).
Our MST might simply add properties to control how the
installation takes place (e.g. suppress all user interaction),
or it might be 'more intrusive', to the point of not installing
parts of the vendor's software package.

As for the flexibility of using an MSI, they can be very
flexible, so I'm not sure what limitations were encountered
in regards to OSGeo4W. They can likely be overcome, however,
like anything else, it may take some time/effort, and the
choice might be to spend that time/effort on other things.

-- 
Dave Patton
CIS Canadian Information Systems
Victoria, B.C.

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