[plug] Yet Another Distro Independent Installer

[Daniel J. Axtens]

In response to some discussion last year about distro-independent
installers, and autopackge in particular, I've hacked up Yadii - Yet
Another Distro Independent Installer.

What makes yadii installers different is that they:
 * Are shell-scripts, and so can be run with a double-click
 * Prefer to install a distro-native version of the desired software
 * Can be modified for almost any project by simply changing some
fields in a shell script - requires no source changes. (eventually
there will be a generator program. someday :)
 * Only run as root when they need to - not all the time.

The core they use:
 * Is extensible to support any distro imaginable - although at the
moment it only supports Debian and FC4 (because I run them at home)
and has generic support for rpm based systems.
 * Can update itself off the net.
 * Is very buggy. :)
 * Needs documentation.

Feel free to download a package-script from
http://kettle.plug.org.au/~danielax/ (run them with env DEBUG=1 if you
want to see exactly what they're doing) At the moment, the only
packages with yadii package-scripts are xchat, irssi and EtherApe -
hoepfully if people find them useful they will be inspired to write
more. :-)

I'd welcome comments, suggestions for modifications, and especially
patches with support for more distros (it should be easy to figure
things out by reading the source) (Or suggestions the whole concept is
fatally flawed :-)

If you find any bugs, feel free to email me off-list. - I'll fix them
especially fast if you include a patch! :-P

Daniel Axtens
--
Neuronstorm: neuronstorm.sourceforge.net
The Neuronstorm Blog: leinad-golb.blogspot.com