Create a dialog-based installer

[GijsTimmers]

Advanced users know how to use a Makefile, rookies don't. We should create an executable that installs jsh. The executable should use dialog for ease of use. You can find some images of what's possible with dialog right here.

Our installer should do the following:

• [x] Tell the user what the installer is going to do, ask whether he wants to continue installing
• [x] Ask the user where to install jsh
• [ ] Ask the user to create a symlink in /usr/bin
• [ ] Recognise the current distribution, and subsequently:
  • If the distro is known by jsh:
  • Check which libraries are already installed
  • Download and install the needed libraries via the system package manager (apt-get, pacman, tce-load)
  • If the distro is not known by jsh: ask the user to search for the needed libraries himself before continuing installation.
• [x] Edit boot flags via the checklist module
• [x] Look for a jsh config files in $HOME; if they are not there, ask the user if he wants the installer to create default jsh config files. The user should be able to edit the config files via the editbox module.
• [x] Show make output with the progressbox module, or show the installation progress via the gauge or mixedgauge module
• [x] The last step should be to ask the user whether he wants to set jsh as the default shell (with the chsh command)
• [x] Notify the user that the installation completed succesfully, and exit cleanly.
• [x] When the user repeatedly presses Enter, the installer should install with default idiot-proof settings.
• [ ] We this is done, ewe can divide the 'Installation' part on the wiki in 3 parts:
  1. Downloading a pre-built binary chmoding it and copy to /usr/bin/ if wanted
  2. 'Easy way of installing' using the dialog-based installer: walk trough with screen shots of every step
  3. Building jsh for your own system, using make
• [x] Testing on various platforms, making the sh script as much portable as possible

Alternative: we can also use zenity. Not my weapon of choice, but we should consider it.

[jovanbulck]

Nice idea indeed, would of course require ncurses as a dependency before using the graphic installer, which is no issue if well documented. I wouldn't recommend zenity neither, especially for this purpose.

Some simple proof-of-concept to start with wouldn't be too hard, I guess.

[jovanbulck]

working on it, see this file

[jovanbulck]

Usable proof-of-concept is now online at https://github.com/jovanbulck/jo-shell/blob/installer/installer.sh. Basic support for choosing install directories, creating and editing configuration files, making and chsh should work. The option dialogs in the beginning are just dummy dialogs for now, but I'll look into it. Note you can also navigate forward and backward between them :-)

The script should even detect correct directory paths and use sudo iff no write rights to directory

Shoot here if you can think of some more compile-time flags by the way. Feel free to change the look and feel of the dialogs a bit and open a pull request. It's basic sh shell code (I refreshed my sh skills a bit :p) Look into the shell script and/or man dialog if interested

Check it out and let me know if it works on your installation

Oh btw: run in old scool Linux tty for best results :p

[jovanbulck]

I'll close this one as the installer is stable now and released since jsh 1.2.0 :-)

I wrote the installer mainly for fun and for refreshing my sh shell programming skills, so I think I wont be implementing any other installer-related feature requests soon. Of course someone can pick up if he wants. It's plain sh so shouldn't be too hard...

If someone feels like implementing or documenting the optional not-yet-implemented ideas repeated below, give it a go! (claim this re-opened issue or create and claim a new one as you like):

• [ ] Ask the user to create a symlink in /usr/bin
• [ ] Recognise the current distribution, and subsequently:
  • If the distro is known by jsh:
  • Check which libraries are already installed
  • Download and install the needed libraries via the system package manager (apt-get, pacman, tce-load)
  • If the distro is not known by jsh: ask the user to search for the needed libraries himself before continuing installation.
• [ ] We this is done, ewe can divide the 'Installation' part on the wiki in 3 parts:
  1. Downloading a pre-built binary chmoding it and copy to /usr/bin/ if wanted
  2. 'Easy way of installing' using the dialog-based installer: walk trough with screen shots of every step
  3. Building jsh for your own system, using make