[wpkg-users] [Bug 273] Per user install support

[bugzilla-daemon at bugzilla.wpkg.org]

http://bugzilla.wpkg.org/show_bug.cgi?id=273

--- Comment #18 from Keith Jones <k.e.jones at brighton.ac.uk>  ---
Hi,

 Sorry. RL intervened so I haven't yet done any coding to try and help out.

 I did notice some caveats that are edge-case problems and need documentation
and thought. I haven't written them down properly yet, so please accept this as
work-in-progress and vague I've-got-ten-minutes-spare update.

 If you dedicate an instance of WPKG to a per-user install with the advice
given, you have to be wary that the name matching process is still key to how
WPKG works.

 I had a simple hosts file for my second user instance;

 <host environment="USERNAME=^MyUser$" profile-id="blah" />
 <host environment="USERNAME=^MyUser2$" profile-id="blah2" />

 That worked... but because the name matching is a separate system you get some
wierd effects. If no match is made you get an error and wpkg.js exits with an
installation failure rather than the "no match" exit path that you'd expect.
That, in turn, means that you can't do some of the basic moves such as
commenting out a host element in hosts.xml and having WPKG remove software
because a system doesn't match a host.

 I think that's pretty obviously because all the flow control is centred around
around the name matching process and the "extended matching" is still an
add-on. 

 I haven't had time to test Stefan's use of <condition> or how adding a
wildcard value for the name attribute works. I'm pretty confident they'd work
well but I'm still thinking it's worth considering treating the name attribute
just like all the new extented attributes. I think the name attribute can be
refactored as "another" attribute (albeit a rather special one) and all the
workflow from the name macthing process could be factored into the attribute
macthing process,.

 I'll work on some coding examples when I get the chance (RL is not playing
fair at the moment). It's a big leap but refactoring has a lot of potential.

Keith

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