instl: installation without magic

What is instl?

instl is a cross-platform tool for creating installers. Installers created with instl can be used online or offline.

instl is written in the python programming language but no knowledge of python is required in order to create installers or use them.

instl uses SubVersion as it’s back-end database for storing installation sources. Some knowledge SubVersion is required in order to setup an installer.

instl is published as Open Source under BSD license.

Supported platforms: Mac OS X, Windows, Linux

Contents:

• 1. Overview
• 2. Moivation
  • 2.1. What’s wrong with existing installer builders?
  • 2.2. How does instl improves the situation?
• 3. What to expect (and what not to expect)
  • 3.1. instl doesn’t...
  • 3.2. instl is...
• 4. instl commands
• 5. Architecture
  • 5.1. Server
  • 5.2. client
• 6. File formats: index and definition
  • 6.1. Index format
  • 6.2. Definitions format
• 7. Example
  • 7.1. Basic
  • 7.2. Adding a file
  • 7.3. Going complicated
  • 7.4. Bundling
• 8. Standard Varables
  • 8.1. Required user supplied variables
  • 8.2. Optional user supplied variables
  • 8.3. Public instl created variables
  • 8.4. Private instl created variables
• 9. Variable definition order
• 10. Code documentation
  • 10.1. instl — Main executable
  • 10.2. instlInstanceBase — instl base class
    • 10.2.1. Methods
    • 10.2.2. Class InstlInstanceBase
  • 10.3. InstlInstanceBase_interactive — Interactive mode implementation
    • 10.3.1. Methods
  • 10.4. InstlInstanceBase derivatives — Platform specific Overrides
    • 10.4.1. Class InstlInstance_mac
    • 10.4.2. Class InstlInstance_win
• 11. Frequently asked questions, with some answers
  • 11.1. What?
  • 11.2. Why?
  • 11.3. Where?

Indices and tables

• Index
• Module Index
• Search Page