Autopackage is a

free Free may refer to: Concept * Freedom, the ability to act or change without constraint or restriction * Emancipate, attaining civil and political rights or equality * Free (''gratis''), free of charge * Gratis versus libre, the difference betw ...

computer

package management system A package manager or package management system is a collection of software tools that automates the process of installing, upgrading, configuring, and removing computer programs for a computer in a consistent manner. A package manager deals wi ...

aimed at making it simple to create a package that can be installed on all

Linux distribution A Linux distribution, often abbreviated as distro, is an operating system that includes the Linux kernel for its kernel functionality. Although the name does not imply product distribution per se, a distro—if distributed on its own—is oft ...

s, created by Mike Hearn around 2002. In August 2010,

Listaller Listaller is a free computer software installation system (similar to a package management system) aimed at making it simple to create a package that can be installed on all Linux distributions as well as providing tools and API to make softwar ...

and Autopackage announced that the projects will merge. Projects such as

aMSN aMSN was a free Windows Live Messenger clone. aMSN attempted to emulate the look and feel of Windows Live Messenger, and supported many of its features. It had been downloaded approximately 40 million times as of January 2011, making it the 21s ...

and

Inkscape Inkscape is a vector graphics editor. It is used for both artistic and technical illustrations such as cartoons, clip art, logos, typography, diagrams, and flowcharts. It uses vector graphics to allow for sharp printouts and renderings at ...

offered an Autopackage installer, and

Freecode Freecode, formerly Freshmeat, was a website owned by BIZX, Inc., hosting mainly open-source software for programmers and developers. Among other things, the site also hosted user reviews and discussions. While a majority of the software covered ...

offered content submitters a field to put the URL of Autopackages. The list of available packages is very limited, and most program versions are obsolete (for example, the most recent Autopackage of

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is 2.2.6, even though GIMP is now at version 2.8.2, as of August 2012).

Methodology

Autopackage was designed for installing binary, or pre-compiled, versions of non-core applications such as

word processor A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Early word processors were stand-alone devices dedicated to the function, but current word ...

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

s, and

personal computer game A personal computer game, or abbreviated PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer (PC). The term ''PC game'' has been popularly used since the 1990s referring specifically to games on "Wintel" (Micr ...

s, rather than core

libraries A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

and applications such as

operating system shell An operating system shell is a computer program that provides relatively broad and direct access to the system on which it runs. The term ''shell'' refers to how it is a relatively thin layer around an operating system. A shell is generally a ...

s. Concept of autopackage was to "improve" Linux to a desktop

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, with stable binary interfaces comparable to Windows and MacOS. Autopackage is not intended to provide installation of core applications and libraries for compatibility reasons. Using Autopackage to distribute non-core libraries is something of a thorny issue. On the one hand distributing them via Autopackage allows installation on a greater range of systems, on the other hand there can be conflicts with native package dependencies. Autopackage is intended as a complementary system to a distribution's usual packaging system, such as

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

and deb. Unlike these formats, Autopackage verifies dependencies by checking for the presence of deployed files, rather than querying a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

of installed packages. This simplifies the design requirements for autopackage by relying on available resources, rather than necessitating tracking all the package choices of all targeted distributions. Programs that use autopackage must also be relocatable, meaning they must be installable to varying directories with a single binary. This enables an autopackage to be installed by a non-root user in the user's home directory.

Package format

Autopackage packages are indicated by the .package extension. They are executable bash scripts, and can be installed by running them. Files in an Autopackage archive are not easily extracted by anything other than Autopackage itself as the internal format must be parsed in order to determine file layout and other issues. Autopackage programs are installed to hard-coded system paths, which may conflict with existing packages installed by other means, thus leading to corruption. This can usually be remedied by uninstalling an older version of a package being installed with Autopackage. The Autopackage files can also be installed and removed using the Listaller toolset.Listaller Project
Listaller simply includes the Autopackage packages into its own package container format and handles Autopackage like any other Listaller package file.

References

External links

* {{Linux package management systems Archive formats Free package management systems Software using the GNU Lesser General Public License

Methodology

Package format

See also

References

External links