On 22.10.2013 13:08, Rob Weir wrote:
On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 6:20 AM, janI <j...@apache.org> wrote:
On 22 October 2013 11:48, Andre Fischer <awf....@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello everybody,
At the moment we provide full installation sets for every release and for
all platforms and languages. An installation set has a typical size of
roughly 150MB. The size of the actual changes is typically much smaller.
Using patches instead of full installation sets would considerably reduce
the amount of data that has to be downloaded by users. For new users
without existing installation of OpenOffice we probably still need the full
installation sets.
Would this also be an opertunity, to look at how we release languages ?
That would certainly have an even greater benefit when combined.
If we don't refactor how we distribute languages we'd need many patch
files, one for each language/platform combination.
I have tested making an installation set that contain all released
languages, it has a rough size of 200Mb, which is a lot friendlier than <#
langauges> * 150Mb, and gives international users (like me) the option to
switch UI.
All I miss is to pursuade the installer to choose the right default UI
language.
Note that such patches can only be made for minor or micro releases.
Major releases would still be full installation sets.
I have worked in the past months on finding out how our build system has
to be modified in order to create patch sets on Windows. This has resulted
in a set of conditions [1] that have to be fulfilled by the installation
sets. One example of a condition that we currently don't fulfill is that
files must not be deleted in minor or micro releases.
Up to now I have taken two full installation sets and then tweaked the
newer one until I was able to
a) successfully create an .msp patch file and
b) successfully apply it to an OpenOffice that was installed by the older
install set.
I would now like to change the build system, especially the solenv/bin/
make_installer.pl script and its modules, so that the installation sets
it creates can be used without further changes to create patch sets. I
would also like to add the patch creation itself.
+1, I have added a single comment on the wiki page about zero length files.
please consider making the patch mechanism in its own module.
For this I propose and seek lazy consensus for the following changes:
1. When a new release is made, create data files that are added to our
version control system (semi automatically) that allow us on the next
release to check and/or enforce the conditions.
2. Before the next release is made, read the data files of the previous
release and check and/or enforce the conditions.
3. When a new minor or micro release is made, first create the full
installation sets, then create patches.
Besides the data files mentioned above, this also requires access to
the installation sets of the previous release.
4. Cleanup of the logging mechanism used by make_installer.pl and its
modules, so that I can better debug the existing and the new code.
At some point we'd need to think about how users find and get these
patches. The current mechanism notifies them about the update and
sends them to www.openoffice.org/download or to an NL page. The
Javascript logic recommends what download to get. We'd need to
distinguish new downloads from patches.
The update notifications could link directly to patches when notifying a
minor or micro release. After all, they originate from an installed office.
Only users that go to our download page have to make a choice between
full installation and patch.
Also, perhaps complications if someone has installed AOO with lang A +
lang pack B. How is this patched? There is a huge number of
combinations there. Jan's idea of a combined 200MB install with all
languages sounds simpler, though larger.
Maybe I should point out that the creation of installation and patch
sets on Windows is an amazingly complex task, even for the current
single language install. Then, as I have said already in an earlier
mail, we have to distinguish between
- UI language of the installer
- UI language of OpenOffice
- supported languages for spell checking etc.
I don't know much about language support of installer and patches but I
see a problem with spell checking. Spell checking and grammar checking
is done by extensions which have to be registered at first start. That
can not be done directly by the installer or a patch. They can at best
trigger such a registration at first start. And the whole area of first
start and extension registration is a really dark area of our code.
I would like to first try to get the patch creation to work for single
language installs and then we can think about how to handle multiple
languages.
-Andre
Regards,
-Rob
Most of the proposed changes have a low impact on the current creation of
installation sets. They basically only add new features (collecting
information about a release, adding it to the VCS, reading the information
on next release, checking conditions, creating patches). However, some
conditions can be enforced automatically (like using the same uuids for
components in one release and the next) and that can introduce regressions,
ie break installation sets. But I think the danger of that is not bigger
than with many other new features or bug fixes. I don't expect conflicts
with build system changes made or proposed by Jan.
Go for it, if you do in trunk, I can merge it into my branches.
I also very little conflict with my build system work, like maybe 1-2
changed makefiles. But thats no serious conflicts, and more me being aware
of the changes.
More details about the creation of installation sets and patches can be
found in the Wiki [2].
I really like the idea, that brings us one step closer to a more
installation.
thx for taking this initative.
rgds
jan I.
Regards,
Andre
[1] http://wiki.openoffice.org/**wiki/Building_installation_**
packages#Conditions_for_**creating_patches<http://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Building_installation_packages#Conditions_for_creating_patches>
[2]
http://wiki.openoffice.org/**wiki/Building_installation_**packages<http://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Building_installation_packages>
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