Bashscripts.org

Greetings!

I know I'm probably gonna be in over my head with this one, which is why im requesting some help. I wanna make a bash script based package system that can be used on any major distro and have dependency handling.

I already have a rough idea on a design. However I'm clueless where to start.


Basic Idea:
1. Packages will be bzip'ed and sort of like slackware packages. They will need some extra files in them however. There will be a license.txt a deps.txt kernel.txt an install.sh script a category.txt and of course the program.
2. To install the package, there will be 2 ways. One would be to open the gui prog and "find" the package and install it with that, the other will be via terminal via maybe install packagename.extension or installpackage packagename.extension
3. The installer when using the gui prog will first extract the package in a temp directory, then load the license.txt which the user will have to agree to. Then the installer will look at the kernel.txt to see which version the package was compiled for. aka 2.4 or 2.6 etc then check the system to see if the kernel is the right one for the package. Then the installer will check the deps.txt file for the package names of the dependencies which it will first check the distro for, then if not found check an internet repository for the package. if it doesnt find the deps there it will tell the user what the names of the dependencies are and to install them before trying to install the package.
4. If all deps are met, the installer will then check what distro the installer is on (aka debian, fedora, suse, etc) then install the files to the directories they are "supposed" to be is based on a "distro template". Then the installer will configure the program based on the install.sh file. Also the installer needs to ask if shortcuts should be made in the menu and on the desktop. The shortcut formats and places will be determined via the "window manager templates" and "filesystem templates".
5. Filesystem "templates" will be text files containing the basic structure of the filesystem for each major distro. It will then compaire the template to the package and install the package where its "supposed" to be.
6. The window manager templates will basically be for placing shortcuts and menu entries based on what window managers are on the system. aka kde, gnome, xfce, icewm, blackbox, etc.
6. There should also be a gui to list all packages that are installed and allow uninstalling, reinstalling via a sort of checkbox kinda thing simular to the pkgtool in slackware but with a gui and have the progs in categories. The category.txt will tell the prog what category the prog is under.

I know my description isnt that grand and prob needs more work to make it "just right". I also know a lot of people will and have flamed me and said all sorts of bad things to me for my efforts to unify certain parts of linux. i dont care who "yells" at me or what anyone calls me. I'm on a mission and will not stop till i'm done or till god tells me to stop.

anyway, if anyone wants to help me with this, id be more than happy and glad for the help.

You should probably check out pacman and alien...

You have to remember that different distro's package things different ways.....and that they put things in "different" places........

Also check out Smart.

thanks for the link, also yes i know different distros put things in diff places.. which is where the "filesystem templates" would come in. they would tell the installer "where" to put certain files based on which distro the installer is on. also im not aiming for compatibility between all distros, but the majority is more what im aiming for.

also after looking at "smart", it isnt what im aiming for. im aiming for a single package system that can install one package type (a new package system with new package formats) on all the major distros. the only restraint would be the kernel which is used, not the distro or where the distro places things. if i can do this, then if someone makes a package of lets say gaim in this new format, then it could be installed with dependency checking on debian, ubuntu, fedora, etc and be placed in the right places.

yes i know this is somehting that wont be easy and i dont expect it to be easy. it will be hard and bash may not be the way to go but its all i know. if i can use bash to show this idea IS possible, then maybe i can find others willing to donate their programming skills to write it in maybe python or c++.

i think i heard somewhere on this forum that the slackware package system uses bash, and i think zenwalk uses a modified slackware package system that has dependency checking and repository support, so i will be looking into it. so this idea may in fact be possible in bash... i hope.