Subversion Repositories SvarDOS

Package files provide an easy way to manage software on SvarDOS. These
packages must adhere to a strict convention so they can be handled properly
by the SvarDOS package manager.


%hPackage 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.


%hPackage 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 recommended command line that can be used to create a
package for a program named EXAMPLE using info-zip:

  zip -9rk 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


%hPackage directory structure

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               Used ONLY by the "help" package
  NLS\%PKGNAME%      Localizations (NLS language files) of the package
  SOURCE\%PKGNAME%   The source code (optional)

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
  SOURCE\FOO\*       here would be stored the foo's source code (optional)

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.

%hLSM meta-data files

Every package MUST contain an LSM file in its "APPINFO" directory. This LSM
file is a text file that contains basic information about the package. Its
format is very simple, it must contain at least two lines:

  version: x.y.z
  description: package description

Any other lines are ignored by the SvarDOS package manager.