Feature changed by: Michael Löffler (michl19) Feature #305582, revision 40 Title: Off-Line one click install (MSI for Linux) - openSUSE-11.2: New + openSUSE-11.2: Evaluation Priority Requester: Important Requested by: Raúl García (bgta) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description: Idea from community member Raúl García. Same concept as MSI packages for Windows but exploiting the One Click Install concept of openSUSE (and therefore inheriting the simplicity, code and security. Basically a compressed file which includes a repository inside, plus one click install information, and a script to trigger the oneclickinstall handler with the data as payload in the script. Therefore is a collection of rpms that can be installed detailed description is here http://en.opensuse.org/OSI There is already a prototype working. Example script: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/363315/MozillaFirefox.osi This requires some extra features in one click install and other pieces * ability to force OneClick to add the repo (the one inside the compressed file) Additionally I see other features: * ability to suggest an update repo for the installed bundle * support from build service to generate bundles * easy way to generate them locally Out of scope but interesting: * Ablity to trigger a YaST workflow (its own control.xml?) Relations: - Specification (url: http://en.opensuse.org/OSI) Business case (Partner benefit): openSUSE.org: This solves the business case of distributing service packs, applications, codecs bundles by just downloading a big file, 100% offline, supporting dependencies and repo signatures. Discussion: #1: Benjamin Weber (benjimanw) (2008-12-17 18:38:57) Sounds good. I suggest not using a shell script to start the process as this could contain anything. Executing arbitrary untrusted code is not really a good idea. An archive containing metadata coupled with a handler that understands the format should be sufficient. #2: Stanislav Visnovsky (visnov) (2008-12-17 20:31:15) Do you mean an ISO image containing an add-on product with privilege separation? #3: Raúl García (bgta) (2008-12-18 13:01:10) The shell script will be executed by the user, with user privileges. Once the file is decompressed, the "One Click Install" is launched and it's works normally but with a local repository. Yes, the shell script could be altered, but any shell script could be altered :) #5: Benjamin Weber (benjimanw) (2008-12-18 14:03:40) (reply to #3) "The shell script will be executed by the user, with user privileges... Yes, the shell script could be altered, but any shell script could be altered :)" The point is not that the script could have been altered, but that the user has not chosen to trust the vendor at the time of executing the shell script, so should not be executing arbitrary code from that vendor. Furthermore, when the script is executed there is not even any way of knowing that the script is really from the vendor the user thinks it is from, or has not been modified in transit. It is safer to have just metadata in the archive, which is read by a handler and any scripts are executed only once the user has chosen to trust the vendor. #4: Marcus Meissner (msmeissn) (2008-12-18 13:07:13) Security comments. - There should be a signature / key already in tarball that validies all other data - and why not a repomd tree, with everything reviewable from repodata/repomd.xml - what advantage brings this compared to just a tar-ed up RPM-MD tree in usual format and signature checked? (and btw, the example script on the page has /tmp problem en-masse) #6: Pavol Rusnak (prusnak) (2008-12-18 14:08:50) I'm against executing any shell scripts. I think Marcus has the point and it was exactly my thought. OSI file should contain: * tared (and compressed - probably lzma) repomd repository * signature * list of packages that are required/recommended/suggested to install from this repo We could reuse YMP-handler, which will only add compressed repository to system, do the workflow and remove it right after installation. #7: John Thomas (john_tomas) (2008-12-18 17:47:09) How would it handle the remove of the same software a user have just installed using this process??? will it be as simple as installing??? #8: Raúl García (bgta) (2008-12-18 17:59:13) (reply to #7) One Click Install is expected to support the removal in the future with the same .ymp #9: John Thomas (john_tomas) (2008-12-18 18:05:54) (reply to #8) Well... that seems a very distant future!!! shouldn't you wait for that feature to came out first??? i mean... Your idea is really great but with no uninstall feature... well it will be missing a very important part!!! (crucial i would say...) I saw PC-BSD's PIB and it seems really interesting!!! It seems very complete!!! #10: Pavol Rusnak (prusnak) (2008-12-18 18:09:35) (reply to #9) On the contrary: from my point of view adding removal feature is very easy. UI will present the list of packages from the metadata, user will do the selection and then these packages will be removed with zypp ... #11: John Thomas (john_tomas) (2008-12-18 18:45:49) (reply to #10) But it would present all the dependencies or just the ones installed by that specific action??? If it would just present the ones installed by that specific installation then you mean that what is asked here (http://opensuse.awardspace.com) is easy to implement... #12: Benjamin Weber (benjimanw) (2008-12-18 19:21:11) (reply to #11) Getting a bit off topic but some of the reasons it's not trivial to implement the uninstall is that you a) need the history of what packages were installed as part of the installation (including automatically selected dependencies) b) Need to only remove the packages that were installed by the original installation but are not required by anything else that was installed subsequently (we don't want to uninstall unrelated things). c) Need to cope with users removing individual packages manually since installation. When do we decide that the application is no longer installed? ... and several others that I thought of but can't remember off the top of my head. The biggest problem is a) As we do not have a transaction- level history of what packages were stored afaik, and are certainly not tieing it to application level metadata. #13: John Thomas (john_tomas) (2008-12-18 20:32:03) (reply to #12) Like i said before... uninstall is far away... :'( #14: Duncan Mac-Vicar (dmacvicar) (2008-12-18 20:52:19) (reply to #13) Yes. Benjamin is right. We are looking into this concept. There is a thread in zypp-devel about this, and it is more complex than it sounds (requires the algorithm to know where the package comes from and why it was installed, information that is right now not available). But please every offtopic conversation here will hurt the evaluation of this feature later. Keep the discussion focused and based on research. #15: John Thomas (john_tomas) (2008-12-19 18:28:45) (reply to #14) Yes, You're right Duncan... I'm sorry! I really get of ground speaking about "that" specific subject... ;) anyway, if the prototype is working and just a small pieces are missing, why not put those pieces together and release the feature??? This is something really cool!!! #16: Federico Lucifredi (flucifredi) (2008-12-20 08:02:36) the idea is interesting, but if it is really self-contained like an MSI. With repos involved, I am not so sure... (referring to ml discussion) #17: Federico Lucifredi (flucifredi) (2009-01-26 21:01:53) (reply to #16) Postponing from 11.2 while we work on dist-upgrade (one biug problem at a time, please). Will reject once Next-release added to fate, so I can add that target before closing the 11.2 one -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/305582