[Info-vax] Logging systartup_vms.com progress to operator.log VMS 7.3-2
Stephen Hoffman
seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid
Fri Oct 16 12:15:57 EDT 2020
On 2020-10-16 15:31:06 +0000, Arne Vajhj said:
> On 10/16/2020 8:40 AM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>> On 2020-10-15, Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> wrote:
>>> On 10/15/2020 1:49 PM, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>>> What happens when something is uninstalled and someone has to remember
>>>> to reverse the manual changes ?
>>>
>>> If somethings gets uninstalled then it need to be removed from where
>>> ever the startup was defined.
>>>
>>> I do not see why removing it from systartup_vms.com should be more
>>> difficult than removing it from somewhere else.
>>
>> Because the whole point is that you should _not_ be removing it manually.
>>
>> What you should be doing is issuing a command to remove something and
>> that command is only carried out after dependency checks are performed
>> and then an automatic removal is carried out using a predefined
>> sequence of steps without any manual involvement required.
>
> You are confusing two independent topics:
> * should the startup info be in a database or be a line in systartup_vms.com?
> * should the startup be removed automatically or manually?
Those two topics are far less independent than you seem to believe.
Put differently, go create a design for installing products which
entails automating the required system changes, and you'll find those
two topics are very much related.
How many other computers still require users to go much with startups
when installing apps? Is continuing that tradition the direction that
we're headed?
> MSI is more like PCSI.
>
> MSI tries to install and checks kit and environment and if
> prerequisites are not there then it aborts.
>
> So does PCSI.
>
> MSI obviously does not modify startup scripts as Windows does not use
> such. It updates a startup database.
>
> But try do a search on how many addon products that exists to help do a
> really complete deinstall on Windows.
>
> It is a good example of how not to do it.
We don't need to look to Microsoft Windows to see how to create this
de-installation mess, as we have OpenVMS to provide a salient example
of the mess.
Which is what we're discussing.
And there's the related discussion around various OpenVMS updates too,
with walls of install-time text and documentation for the manual edits
required for the upgrades.
And for not the first time I've had to state this here, borrowing good
ideas does not require also borrowing the bad ones.
--
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