Subversion Repositories SvarDOS

Package files provide an easy way to manage software on SvarDOS.


*** Package filenames ***

Packages names must follow some basic rules. They shall be max. 8 letters long (but should not be too short either, since a 1 or 2-letters package name might be confusing), and must not be composed of characters other than a-b, 0-9 and '_'. This for backward compatibility with short file names (8+3) and ISO 9660 file systems (used on CDROMs). The package filename is always followed by the .ZIP extension.


*** Package files ***

SvarDOS uses ZIP files as its package file format. This format has been chosen because ZIP files under DOS have become the de facto way to distribute collections of files. Also, the ZIP file format is well documented, well supported, and in the public domain.

Here below is the RECOMENDED command line that can be used to create a package for a program named EXAMPLE using info-zip:

  ZIP -9 -r -k EXAMPLE.ZIP subdir1 subdir2 ... subdirN

If you are using 7za to create your packages, then use this:

  7za a -mm=deflate -mx=9 -tzip EXAMPLE.ZIP subdir1 subdir2 ... subdirN


*** Package directory structure ***

A package archive includes both binary and source code. The installer can choose to not unpack sources at install time.

The directory structure of a package depends on the type of packages. For "core" packages, we have this:

  APPINFO            Put the program's LSM file here
  BIN                Binaries, such as exe and com files
  DOC\%PKGNAME%      Package documentation
  HELP               The help files
  NLS\%PKGNAME%      Localizations (NLS language files) of the package
  SOURCE\%PKGNAME%   The complete source code

Non-core packages use a slightly different directory organization. For example, if we were to consider a package FOO, we might end up with the following structure:

  APPINFO\FOO.LSM    Package meta file for the FOO program
  PROGS\FOO\FOO.EXE  The program's executable
  PROGS\FOO\FOO.TXT  Some documentation
  PROGS\FOO\FILE.DAT Data file used by the FOO program
  LINKS\FOO.BAT      A "Link" file, see the "links" section for details
  SOURCE\FOO\*       here would be stored all foo's source files

Note the 'PROGS' directory above. This is a category to which the package belong. The package installer might change this directory at install time, depending on the user's preferences. Possible categories are listed below:

Category | Description
DEVEL    | Development tools (mostly compilers)
DRIVERS  | Drivers
GAMES    | Games
PROGS    | User programs, tools...

Note: "DOC", "NLS", "BIN" and "HELP" directories are strictly reserved to "core" packages.


*** Links ***

Many utilities are meant to be used from the command line to work on files. Such tools are often expected to be somewhere in the %PATH%, so one do not need to switch to the directory where the said utility is stored to use it. A good example of such tools are archivers (like zip, unrar...), but there are others, too. For such tools, the package format provides a "linking" provision. A package that wishes to put one or more of its executable in the %PATH%, will have to contain a LINKS directory, and in this directory a batch file for every executable that needs to be linked to %PATH%. The batch file must contain ONLY the path and filename to the target executable (as stored in the zip package). During installation, the package manager will substitute these batch files with proper content.