GM 1.6.1 new feature

[petefinnigan]

I don't know how easy this will be to do buty I am going to suggest it anyway. What we could do with to make greymatter more accessible to anyone is to have an installer that works like other software. Something like:-

o - download the zip
o - copy to server
o - open URL
o - fill in some values
o - do as much config as possible automatically - particularly chmodding and diagnostics.

my idea would be to remove as much of the Unixy stuff as possible.

cheers

Pete

[m30]

Is it possible for an online script to actually go into the GM .cgi files and change the location for the PERL pointer?

That to me seems the least user friendly part.

At a close second is the CHMOD process itself, but I can't see how you'd do that automatically.

I like the idea though. The entire process would be streamlined greatly, and the potential user base would grow by a lot.

[coldstone]

Yeah, its possible to make a perl script that would change the paths of all the other perl scripts (gm-comments, and gm-karma I think). Of course, you would have to set the right perl path in the script to change the perl paths.

I agree that an installer could be very usefull. I know some people will always be stuck doing stuff through a crappy web interface (like me). My webhost does not trust people with command line access and instead I have to go through this clunky web interface that allows limited options (no running of arbitrary scripts). Of course there are cgi command line simulators, but they don't run as the right user.

Thats the biggest issue with having the web scripts create alot of the empty files, is that they would be owned by the webserver user. For example on my local machine, my archive files are actually owned by the user 'web' and I can't edit them as myself, I have to switch to root.

I am not argueing against, just adding some points to consider. I am all for making the install easier.

P.S. perl even has a great file getter, but its in a non-core package, LWP::Simple. You can call 'get(url);'. Man I wish that was in core perl.

[petefinnigan]

I suggested it. I didnt say it was simple. The problem to get rid of chmod for the user is that you need to upload an initial perl script that has been chmodded 755 (at least) that would do the chmods on the other core scripts. To remove the dependancies on the user having to do chmod and use ftp to do it would mean finding a way to have your cake and eat it.

The only thing I can think of initially is to forego Perl for parts of the installer and use php. That way we would be able to manipulate the perl scripts and do chmodding. It would place a further dependancy on the user in that they would need Perl and php. This is not generally an issue for most ISP's.

That way we would do:

o - download the zip
o - unzip - (The zip would include a php installer page)
o - copy to server
o - open URL - The php page
o - fill in some values
o - do as much config as possible automatically - particularly chmodding perl paths and diagnostics.

What I would like to see is the difference between loading a program on Windows and installing on Unix. i.e a simple wizard vs tar/gzip/make/gcc etc...

cheers

Pete

[coldstone]

True. I think with php we will still run into permission issues (file owner vs webserver user). Do you guys get command line options to your ISPs (telnet/ssh)?

[petefinnigan]

Hi Coldstone,

Thanks for your reply. I have root access to my server but most people dont have. This is why I would like us to have the simplest install possible without the intricacies of chmod.

I will add it to my list to test a php script that does a chmod and check out what happens user/permissions wise.

cheers

Pete