chenejac
commented
3 years ago Graham Triggs said:
Does including the tar in the WAR really make installation easier for new users? They still have to configure a location for the home folder, and ensure that Tomcat is able to write to that location.
If the user is responsible for ensuring there is a Tomcat accessible folder to be used as the home folder, then they might as well be responsible for untarring the home folder, even if they don't use a Maven install command.
NB. the installation instructions should NOT use the Maven "install" lifecycle if they are only generating packages. It should use the "package" or "verify" lifecycle, where the tar / war will then be in the relevant target directory. "install" / "deploy" should only be used when you want Maven to do something else with the created packages.
Brian Lowe (Migrated from VIVO-1968) said:
The embedded home directory tar file and its associated untarring and update processes, while simplifying installation for new users, can present problems for existing custom installation workflows. Currently, if the tar file is not included under the application's WEB-INF directory, VIVO fails to start. If VIVO instead proceeded to attempt to use the home directory as-is without updates, it should make it easier for custom installations to continue without (major) changes.