On Tue, 23 Mar 2010 02:06:16 -0700 (PDT), Mark Breedveld <[email protected]> wrote: > I'll see both problems and another solution to work around this. > We could install web2py into /usr/ directories with apt. > > Then create a startup script that makes a copy of web2py and the > web2py applications that are installed trough apt to the /var folder. > A so called runtime version of web2py.
This will work, but why would you want to do this? It will create more problems than it solves. Imagine the following scenario: you develop a web2py application called XYZ, which is packaged and distributed via Debian. A user installs XYZ version 1.2.3 and starts playing with the runtime version in /var, adding new views and controllers and modifying the existing ones. Some time later you release XYZ 1.3.0 which gets installed on the user's computer via an automatic update. Now there are two version of XYZ on that computer - the mainstream 1.3.0 in /usr and user-modified 1.2.3 in /var. The changes that you made in 1.3.0 are incompatible with the user's changes, so there is no easy way to merge them together. The startup script can not just override the user's changes and install 1.3.0 in /var, that would be cruel. Let's assume it leaves 1.2.3 in /var intact. Now the user notices a bug in your application and decides to submit a bug report using one of the standard bug-reporting tools in Debian. The tool looks at the packaging database and reports that the user has XYZ 1.3.0 installed. Imagine your confusion when you receive this bug report, you thought you had fixed this problem, but it's still there. It's a nightmare, I would not want to maintain such an application. Let's admit that there are different roles: developers develop applications, users use them. When a user wants to become a developer he can install the application in his home dir and start working on it. There is another class of users who don't have any intention of modifying the application. They just want to use it, they want stability and predictability, and the packaging system gives them that. Regards, Dima. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "web2py-users" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/web2py?hl=en.
