Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!boulder!rsk
From: rsk@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Rich Kulawiec)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix
Subject: Re: phew!
Summary: Agreement on the criticism of self-installing packages
Message-ID: <19420@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Date: 8 Apr 90 15:07:25 GMT
References: <10655@cbmvax.commodore.com> <1990Apr7.081638.1374@eng.umd.edu> <2834@rodan.acs.syr.edu> <1990Apr8.085237.3901@eng.umd.edu>
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Reply-To: rsk@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Rich Kulawiec)
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In article <1990Apr8.085237.3901@eng.umd.edu> smaug@eng.umd.edu (Kurt Lidl) writes:
>...Even more frustrating is the software
>that comes with a one-sheet that says:  "untar the tape into the
>current directory with 'tar xvf /dev/nrst0' and then type 'install_me'".

Exactly.  I don't mind if one of set of installation instructions are
provided for naive installers who really *do* want the package to install
itself, and who don't care how/where it does it as long as it works when
they're done....but software distributors should provide a set of
installation instructions for those of us that know what we're doing.
(For example, the B news 2.11 installation instructions explain what
to customize, where to customize it, and what will happen as a result.
They're not perfect, but they're far better than the ones I received
with our copy of Saber-C. [ "tar..." followed by "RUN_ME" ]

One solution I've found to this is to run such scripts with -x and/or -v
turned on, and to run them as an ordinary user (not root).  By watching
why the install script really attempts to do, I can usually hack in the
changes I need much faster than hand-interpreting it.

---Rsk