[wpkg-users] Re-check of installed packages not possible

[Tomasz Chmielewski]

Falko Trojahn wrote:

(...)

> In the meantime someone has deinstalled Office manually (yes, there are
> guys out there doing this ;-)
> and wpkg didn't notice this - or he upgraded to Office 2007 Beta, or
> whatever.

IMO system administrator should make sure that no one unauthorized 
removes software.
If it's impossible for some reasons...


> ... and so on - every patch hit the client with a dialog box and notified him of not being able to install the
> upgrade patch since the underlying product isn't installed.
> 
> The problem here is, that
> 
> a) wpkg didn't notice that Office XP isn't installed any more, and

...run wpkg with /force flag - it will try to reinstall everything - and 
if the check is successful, it will not install of course, but then it 
will notice "new" packages (like Office in your case).


> b) if I manually remove e.g. msofficexp-SP3 with /remove, the dependent packages aren't deinstalled, too. And
> 
> c) if I manually reinstall with /install, wpkg "thinks" that the patches for Office are installed, but
>    does not reinstall them
> 
> Only solution was to use /force, but this even tries to remove things which aren't installed - not wanted here.

All right, I see the problem (I actually started replying during reading 
the email).

You'd have to add Office to the profile, start WPKG, then remove Office 
from the profile, and start WPKG again, right?


> I'd suggest
> 
> - implement dependencies for removal, too (this hits another thing again: 
>   priorities for removal in opposite order to installation ...)

Yep, removal is "broken" a bit, the order should be reversed.


> - if the dependencies work, I can have something like 
>     <check  ... everytime="true" ... /> 
>   or
>     <package id="...." ... check="always" ... />
>   in a package, like the "msofficexp" package above. So, every time wpkg is run, this check is done,
>   and if the condition isn't met, the package isn't there, and can be removed, and 
>   all packages which depend from it, too.
> 
> What do you think?

I don't know if it wouldn't complicate all XML files? And if I think 
about a web GUI for WPKG, with that many non-intuitive options, well. :)

If I saw WPKG for the first time, I'd ask why is it necessary - why the 
packager doesn't know what packages are installed?
We know the answer, but from the "average Joe" perspective, it might be 
a bit unclear. And average Joe might be right - Office is in Software 
Add/Remove, right?

As the tests are rather inexpensive, both in terms of system load and 
time, perhaps it would be a good idea to make checks for *all* available 
packages each time WPKG is started (unless overridden with something 
like /nochecks)?

After all, wpkg.xml is really needed just for "execute once" and 
revisions for upgrades.

WDYT?


-- 
Tomasz Chmielewski
http://syneticon.net





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