From kde-buildsystem Sun Aug 24 20:15:51 2008 From: Mike Arthur Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:15:51 +0000 To: kde-buildsystem Subject: CPack Packaging for Windows/Mac (and possibly Linux) Message-Id: <200808242115.52187.mike () mikearthur ! co ! uk> X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-buildsystem&m=121960901711011 Hey guys, I was talking to Alexander Neundorf and Till Adam at Akademy about packaging for Windows/Mac (and possibly Linux) systems using CPack. As we're using CMake and CTest for our build and test system it makes sense to use CPack for as much of our packaging as possible. Currently the Windows packaging and install system is fairly terrible. I realise we are from a UNIX background and we want to minimise wastage of libraries etc. but we seriously need to rethink the way we are distributing packages to users if we want to target the same market that e.g. Mozilla do. If you compare the installation process for e.g. Konqueror vs Firefox then its fairly insane how hard it is for us (at least last time I checked). I propose that we set up CPack to create per-package and per-module installers for Windows and Mac. I'm going to start updating CPack's wiki documentation massively in the next few weeks and also plan on trying to create a MSI backend for CPack and have experience at Mendeley (http://www.mendeley.com/) with creating automatically generated installers for Windows/Mac/Linux with e.g. branding/graphics and ensuring that the applications install and behave as closely as possible to an expected user of that platform. At the moment I'm using a NSIS installer for Windows and a DMG with a PKG and .app bundle on Mac. I realise that my above critiquing of the current packaging system will probably attract some attention but I think its important that this is shaken up a bit. If necessary the two projects can live side-by-side, the current approach for people who really don't want to duplicate libraries and the individual-packaged application approach for people that just want to install an application offline and start using it straight away. Anyway, awaiting thoughts on this and have cross-posted to a few lists to ensure maximum input. -- Cheers, Mike Arthur _______________________________________________ Kde-buildsystem mailing list Kde-buildsystem@kde.org https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-buildsystem