[wpkg-users] Updating packages without disrupting end users

[Jon Rhoades]

Hi Antony, 


Ideally you will want to run WPKG at startup (or shutdown) so there's no chance that a program will be in use. 


Typically an installer can handle the fact that the program it's updating is running, so most people will just let that install fail rather than kill the running program and potentially lose data. 


However most of the time you see taskkill being used is where you need to ensure that a separate application isn't running - eg Flash & Java won't install correctly if Firefox is running - hence you end up with an inconsistent installation state where WPKG thinks that Flash is correctly installed, but the plugin didn't get added to Firefox. To avoid this we run Taskkill on Firefox before installing Flash, to ensure Firefox isn't running so the plugin can be added. 


It's a trade off between ensuring a clean install and annoying a user by having a program quit for no apparent reason. 


That said, don't run WPKG when users are logged on or you will have many other issues - for example; what happens when somebody tries to run a program that is being updated? Run it at startup or shutdown. 


Cheers Jon 


-- 
Jon Rhoades 
Research Information Systems 
Eastern Hill Academic Centre 
(Incorporating The University of Melbourne Departments of Medicine, Surgery and Clinical School (St.Vincent's), St Vincent's Institute and O'Brien Institute) 

St Vincent's Institute 
9 Princes St Fitzroy Vic 3065 
p: 03 9288 2480 | x: 2399 | f: 03 9416 2676 

www.stv.unimelb.edu.au 
www.svi.edu.au 
----- Original Message -----
From: "Antony Awaida" <antony at bizappcenter.com> 
To: wpkg-users at lists.wpkg.org 
Sent: Thursday, 18 July, 2013 1:12:04 PM 
Subject: [wpkg-users] Updating packages without disrupting end users 

Hi Folks: 

Several of the silent installers in the WPKG database use taskkill 
when updating from one version of a package to a newer version (e.g. 
Firefox). 

>From an end user perspective, this means that I could be using an 
application or a browser and my application will be terminated with no 
notification and I will lose all my work. 

Is there a good way to deal with this? 

Thanks, 
Antony 
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