RXSETUP

• Introduction
• News in this version
• Features, bugs & limitations
• A sample session
• Installing RXSETUP
• Removing RXSETUP
• Command line options
• RXSETUP as installer
• RXSETUP as deinstaller
• License
• Getting RXSETUP

• A programmer prepares a package, distributing files in several directories and placing RXSETUP.CMD and a text file INSTALL.DAT in the root directory.
• You unpack that package and find RXSETUP.CMD. Execute it and it will ask you some simple questions:
  • The place where files should go (Including an administrative file)
  • Whether existing older files should be replace (Be careful with this)
  • Whether to update CONFIG.SYS or to save changes to a new file (namely, CONFIG.SYS)
• Next, RXSETUP will read INSTALL.DAT and copy the files. If something goes wrong you'll be given the possibility to delete the installed files. Be careful with this option.

• Invoke RXSETUP with the name of the administrative file that corresponds to the package.
• If there are conflicts (i.e., files that have change since first installed) have a close look at them and decide whether to continue.
• Optionally, have a look at the list of files to be removed.
• Edit CONFIG.SYS by yourself -- RXSETUP is not that clever.

• Cleaner, simpler, safer program. Just a bit larger.
• .
• Important bugs fixed: variables not already defined in CONFIG.SYS are not appended to it, '#...#' macros do not work, Stream(...,'OPEN REPLACE') is not accepted by Warp 3's REXX
• Environment variables can be used to retrieve default values for keys.
• It is possible to redefine the USRROOT and USRADM KEYS in the INSTALL.DAT file.
• New unconstrained KEYS for general (non path) settings.
• New macro %%CANON%%
• Possibility to copy directories recursively or not.
• Time stamps stored in administrative files. They are taken into account when removing those files.
• Search for conflicts in the installation routines.
• Search for problems in the deinstallation routine.
• Simple builtin pager for long text lists.
• New hypertext manuals.
• New sample INSTALL.DAT customized for XFree applications.
• New INSTALL.os2 file to be distributed with RXSETUP.

• It can install files and create directories and subdirectories at the appropiate places.
• When installing it can check for the existence of simple conflicts: files that are going to be overwritten, namely.
• It can modify and define new variables in CONFIG.SYS.
• It can either create a model CONFIG.NEW or replace the old one while backing it up.
• It can store a list of all the files that were installed together with time stamps.
• It can parse such a list and remove the files.
• When removing a package it can check for files that have been modified (customized files?), and prompt the user for each new one.

This is what RXSETUP cannot do:

• Showing graphics: buttons, scroll bars, and so on.
• Installing right out of a package (ZIP file)
• Checking for disk space.
• Requiring packages to be installed.
• Checking package dependecies when removing packages.
• Updating CONFIG.SYS after removing a package.
• Creating WPS objects.

• Unzip the RXSETUP.ZIP package in a temporary place. Let's say you use C:\TMP.
• Move to C:\TMP\RXSETUP. You'll find a INSTALL.DAT file and a RXSETUP.CMD script.
• Run the RXSETUP.CMD script
• Type

  	1 C:\OPT\RXSETUP
  

  and press ENTER. This will set the root directory for the installation of the package.
• Enter '0'. This way you'll exit the menu.
• Answer 'Y' to 'Show a list with...'. You'll see a list with the files that are to be copied.
• Answer 'Y' to 'Do you want me to check...'. If you run this example a second time you'll see some warnings about files that are going to be overwritten. It's up to you to scare or not :)
• Answer 'Y' to proceed.
• Answer 'N' to 'Update C:\CONFIG.SYS...'.
• And that's all. You'll see a C:\CONFIG.NEW file with a different 'SET PATH=...' line.

Now let's say you want to deinstall the program. You'll only have to type

	rxsetup -d C:\OPT\ADM\RXSETUP.ADM

See below for a detailed explanation of how the program works.

Installing RXSETUP

You can place the 'rxsetup.cmd' almost wherever you want, but it is recommended to place it in a directory that belongs to the PATH environment variable.

To install RXSETUP just follow the steps in the preceding section.

Command line options

	rxsetup

	rxsetup -d admfilename

EMPTY LINES AND COMMENTS

• Spaces and tab characters are not significant.
• Lines begining with zero or more spaces/tabs plus a '#' are thought to be comments and ignored.

SIZE SECTION

• This sentence sets the minimum required space in the destination drive unit.
• Format

  	SIZE [bytes]
  

• Currently it is not supported.

INSTALL SECTION:

• Its purpose is to define values that the user may edit so as to customize the installation.
• Format:

  	KEY [prompt] [variable] [default]
  

• The "prompt" field is a short string explaining the purpose of the files that are to be installed under this path.
• The "variable" field is the name of ficticious.
• There are two kind of keys: those that shall contain paths, and those that shall contain anything. The latter are distinguished because of a leading underscore. For example, in

  	KEY "Executables" bindir
  	KEY "User name" _user worm
  

  "bindir" shall contain a canonified path, while "_user" may contain any string.
• Values for path keys are defined using the '\' character. The program translates '/' to '\'. Trailing '\'s are removed. And afterwards, if the path is a relative one, the value of USRROOT is prepended to it.
• Underscored keys suffer no kind of check.
• A suitable "default" value must be provided. That value may contain, anywhere, a macro of the form %variable%, where "variable" is the name of any environment variable. For example:

  KEY "Root for the package" USRROOT %USRROOT%
  

EXPORT SECTION

• Format:

  	EXPORT [environ] [value]
  

• "environ" is either LIBPATH or the name of an environment variable to be defined.
• "value" is a expression for the value of that environment variable. You can use the following constructions

  Macro name	Placement	Purpose
  %%CANON%%	At begining. Separated by a space.	Format the following text as ';' separated list of paths, without duplicate values.
  %old%	anywhere	The previous value of the environment variable.
  %variable%	anywhere	The path assigned to "variable" by a KEY section and later modified by the user.
  #variable#	anywhere	The same as above, but using '/' instead of '\'.

• The %%CANON%% macro is a very important one and should be used whenever PATH, LIBPATH or any other list of directories needs to be updated. Some examples of how it work:

  EXPORT PATH     %%CANON%% %OLD%;%bindir%
  EXPORT LIBPATH  %%CANON%% %OLD%;%dlldir%
  EXPORT C_LIBRARY_PATH %%CANON%% %OLD%;#libdir#
  EXPORT INCLUDE_PATH %%CANON%% %OLD%;#includedir#
  

Juan Jose Garcia Ripoll     Web:  http://www.arrakis.es/~worm
c/Sierra Alcubierre, 8      Mail: worm@arrakis.es
Alcorcon, E-28923 (Spain)   Phn:  +34-1-6124400