RPM Style solution for php software?

[Marius Andreiana]

On Mon, 2005-11-21 at 08:21 +0100, Andy Pieters wrote:
> I am a php developer and develop huge packages.  Those packages are then 
> installed by my clients or clients of my resellers on a score of webservers.  
> As with all applications, bugfixes, and updates are issued on an almost 
> weekly bases.
> 
> What I really would like is to have an rpm style system.
> 
> The downside of it all is that it requires shell access which most clients do 
> not have.  Furthermore, not all clients are running linux, some are running 
> Mac (Unix based, but...?), or windows.  
Then you cannot use rpm.

> Three more requirements are not met:
Another advantage of the rpm system is that you can define a yum
repository, activate yum to update daily, and never worry that you left
a client un-updated.

> 
> 1. The location of where the files in the package are installed is fixed in 
> the rpm
you can use rpm --prefix to change it at install time.
But the clients should be uniform.

> 2. Many packages require updates to the database, which means that a php cli 
> with mysql support must be available on the system.
Fedora includes this, why is it a problem?

> 3. In case of a first install, information needs to be collected about the 
> environment and user/password stuff.
Why is it a problem? You can collect info with pre/post install scripts,
the problem is to transfer it automatically in a secure mode. You could
include your GPG public key in the rpm, encrypt the information with
that and send it by mail (with php's own functionality).

For multiplatform you can look at pear packages, but rpm offers more
advantages.

Regards,
-- 
Marius Andreiana