[osgeo4w-dev] o4w-apt: an apt-get like utility for OSGeo4W

[Frank Warmerdam]

Matt Wilkie wrote:
>>  - I did not have a setup.ini in c:/osgeo4w/etc/setup, so I ended up 
>> copying
>>    it there manually from my cache directory.
> 
> Ahhh, that is because one needs to run 'o4w-apt setup' first on a new 
> machine. I neglected to document that.

Matt,

Ah!

>>  - The openev postinstall target did not work on an upgrade because the
>>    OSGEO4W_ROOT and OSGEO4W_ROOT_MSYS environment variables were not 
>> defined.
> 
> I'm getting that error too, even when the env is set:
> ---------
> C:\Osgeo4W> set osg
> OSGEO4W_ROOT=C:\Osgeo4W

You also need to set OSGEO4W_ROOT_MSYS which should be an MSYS
compatible path.  Usually something like "/c/OSGeo4W" I think.

>>  - The setup command does not run \bin\osgeo4w-setup.exe
> 
> What would the purpose of that be? What will that do that is not covered 
> by o4w-apt?

Sorry, I misunderstood the role of the setup command.  I assumed it
was a way of running the gui.  Disregard my comment.

> (We've got to find a different name. Mixing numbers and letters mid-word 
> like that is just too difficult to type!)

I'd be in favor of just calling your program "apt" instead of o4w-apt -
I have the same problem with that being very ackward to type.

>> I'm interested in getting this packaged up (including a "covering"
>> bat file since the osgeo4w shell does not know how to run .py files).
> 
> I've got a batch file which does this for all .py in osgeo/bin[1], see 
> :MakeBats function:
>    cd /d %OSGEO4W_ROOT%\bin
>    for %%g in (*.py) do (
>       if not exist %%~ng.bat echo @python "%%OSGEO4W_ROOT%%\bin\%%g" %%* 
>  > %%~ng.bat
>       )
>    goto :EOF
> 
> [1] 
> http://code.google.com/p/maphew/source/browse/trunk/gis/o4w_extras/install-o4w-extras.bat 
> 
> 
> I'd love to have this included within osgeo4w. I'm sure more skilled 
> eyes than mine checking it out would be of great benefit.

This could be a useful addition to the python package, making it easy for
other packages to create all the stub .bat files as part of their post install
step.  Perhaps you could file a ticket with the details, and I could update
the python package to include this, and the gdal-python package to use this.

PS. While I agree with Jeff that this apt utility will not be the primary
interface for new users, I think it is very handy for the not insignificant
group of us who are keen on commandline mechanisms.  I think the hardest
challenge is ensuring it integrates smoothly with other installation mechanisms
(like handling of postinstall steps, use of a common cache directory).

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org