[osgeo4w-dev] Apt commandline installer now at v0.0-2

[Matt Wilkie]

Hello World,

Apt.py v0.0-2, the command line osgeo4w installer, is now available. It 
can  be found under Commandline Utilities in the setup.exe installer or 
http://trac.osgeo.org/osgeo4w/browser/trunk/apt

First time use, from within OSGeo4W shell:

    apt setup
    apt install gdal

After that:

    apt update		(fetch up-to-date setup.ini)
    apt new		(show possible upgrades)
    apt list		(show installed packages)
    apt available	(show installation candidates)
    apt remove xxx	(uninstall package xxx)


For a completely virgin system (no osgeo4w, no python) see
http://code.google.com/p/maphew/wiki/OsgeoFromScratch


Changes since v0-0.1:

    * much better package removal (though still misses .tmpl files in 
./bin and start menu shortcuts)
    * new command "apt available" shows packages which could be 
installed (previously one had to know the name already)
    * download percentage counter no longer reports >100% recieved


Apt.py and setup.exe use the same install database and procedures 
(though not code). One can switch between them at will depending on the 
needs of the moment. Configure setup.exe's cache directory to 
C:\Osgeo4W\var\cache\setup to avoid duplicating downloads. I would of 
course expect problems were both to run at the same time.

I've been using apt.py without significant issues for over a year, 
nevertheless I still consider this alpha software. This is my first real 
  software development project and I've no training whatsoever. The only 
reason it works at all is because the original author, Jan 
Nieuwenhuizen, knew what he was doing when he wrote cyg-apt for cygwin.

The biggest functional problem is that uninstall is not yet 
comprehensive. There is little error trapping and not enough feedback on 
commands. For example "apt remove" just silently exits back to the shell 
prompt when it should respond with a usage message ("apt remove 
[package_name]"), at the least.

Feedback is welcome, especially on programming advice! Please use the 
o4w trac for logging bugs.

Enjoy!

-- 
matt wilkie
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Geomatics Analyst
Information Management and Technology
Yukon Department of Environment
10 Burns Road * Whitehorse, Yukon * Y1A 4Y9
867-667-8133 Tel * 867-393-7003 Fax
http://environmentyukon.gov.yk.ca/geomatics/
--------------------------------------------