Re: [gentoo-dev] Web Application installations

[Andrew Cowie <andrew@operationaldynamics.com>]

On Wed, 2003-07-23 at 15:17, Max Kalika wrote:
> I've ported over most of
> the Horde apps to use this eclass in my local tree as an exercise and let
> me tell you, installing (and upgrading) Horde is actually pleasant now.

Oh, yeah, I can see that. The app I have in mind is dotProject (also a
PHP web app)

Web Application installations ARE a bit more complex than just `make
install` the program:

a) installing  PHP app (ok, this is relatively straight forward - you
just unpack  tarball somewhere and ta-da, but one *does* need to know
where to put it)

b) ensure you've got all the dependencies. (Yuk).

c) configure application [not so optional, but in Gentoo you are
expected to do this on your own; also applies to:]

d) install DB tables [optional, depends on which DB you're running, etc,
etc... could guess from USE flags, but who wants an app just madly
crashing around creating tables, especially when config may not be in
place and when, if an upgrade, tables all ready exist]

"Where to put it" does have slightly broader implications. Under the
machine's default DocumentRoot seems a good idea, but there are many
instances where one wants to make a separate virtual host for the
installation, or, or....

Is there a way that that can be automated too? I suspect not, without
going to something like linux-control-center or debconf or some similar
craziness]

Certainly as a first approximation, "sub directory of machine default
DocRoot" seems a not bad place to start, but I'm curious what others
think we should practice as I can think of numerous objections to this.

AfC

-- 
Andrew Frederick Cowie
Operational Dynamics Consulting Pty Ltd

Australia +61 2 9977 6866  North America +1 646 270 5376

http://www.operationaldynamics.com/

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