Re: PHAR archives

Paul Scott wrote: > I was just wondering...Dangerous, I know, but anyway... > > Our application makes *extensive* use of a whole whack of the PEAR > objects, and our users are starting to find it increasingly difficult to > install all of them. (Most of our users are lecturers/educators, not > sysadmins). Is it reasonable to create a PHAR archive of them all and > use a postinstall script to pear upgrade-all? This archive we could then > distribute as a separate download or something with a README. Does > something like this exist already? Has someone got something that they > would like to share? > > Thoughts? Two questions should answer this one realy quick: 1) will all of your users have simple, easy internet access at the time they install your application? 2) do any of them have enough know-how to set up a proxy? If the answer is "yes" to both, then use some kind of remote installation method like PEAR_PackageUpdate, it will ultimately have a lower setup cost for you. if the answer is "no" to either, then you should instead use a phar archive. However, this begs another question: 3) do all of your users have PHP 5.1.0 or newer? phar archives require PHP 5.1.0 because of the new __HALT_COMPILER(); token, so if any users have PHP 5.1.0 or older, you need to use some other method. The gnope installer for PHP-GTK2 (http://www.gnope.org) uses a modified version of the make-installpear-nozlib-phar.php (phew) script available in CVS of pear-core/ to create a custom phar for installation. The script may need some updating to match the parameter order of the current PHP_Archive, I have to check that some time soon, but instructions are available inside the file for setting it up, and also inside README.RELEASING inside pear-core/ This should get you started, ask here for further questions. Greg