Hi!

Anyone knows a cross platform install builder?
What I'm dreaming about is a tool where I can list the parts of the software, requirements, aditionally needed system files an so on, and it creates an installer for me, e.g. a setup.exe for windows, a .deb-Package for debian and ubuntu and a .rpm for redhat and suse...

Anyone heard of a tool like that?

regards
Lukas

Hi,

Anyone knows a cross platform install builder?

I am working on a cross platform installer for our company, and it generates a single file deployment on all platforms (Linux, FreeBSD & Windows). It can also have multiple targets inside the same setup. It supports console and GUI modes inside the same setup. You can also use the installer in a "unpacked" mode (for use on CD or DVD) where a single setup file is not required (compared to downloading a setup from the internet).

It doesn't generate .deb or .rpm files though - it is Linux distro independent. The target audience for the installer is application developers that use Free Pascal (object pascal).

The installer is not 100% implemented yet, hence the code is not publicly available yet. It should be available in a couple of months.

Hello Graeme, good to see you here again :)

It would be something like a InstallJammer[?]?

[?] http://www.installjammer.com/

Please, see this sample:

Linux:
http://sites.google.com/site/fiensprototyping/setmiximum.tar.gz?attredirects=0

Windows:
http://sites.google.com/site/fiensprototyping/setupmiximum.zip?attredirects=0

Home:
http://sites.google.com/site/fiensprototyping/

Graeme - nice to see you here again.

To be honest, I already thought about you possibly having some experience with this issue...

What you wrote here looks like what I was looking for - so I'm seeing forward to it...

I need a tool like that for a OpenVPN-GUI I wrote (very similar to the Windows one available with the windows-release of openvpn) and I plan to relase that GUI as the networkmanager is to buggy to use OpenVPN and I wanted to share a single config-Directory for windows and linux installs..

So if you use Openvpn and need a suiteable GUI...

regards
Lukas

So if you use Openvpn and need a suiteable GUI...

I would like to test it.

Mattias

Silvio Clecio wrote

It would be something like a InstallJammer[?]? From their feature list, it sounds very similar to ours. Amazing how

you find similar software *after* you wrote your own - and I did search for such cross-platform installers before I started the project. :-/

Is there a possibility for you to integrate your installer code into fpmake? I think there was some idea to add all of these installers to fpmake so you can have a target for innosetup, deb, rpm, etc. We've been using wix to create our installers, so I thought I could attempt to add a basic wix xml target for fpmake, but I haven't had the time.

Henry

On the German Lazarus forum there is sb working on something called "listaller"

Graeme wrote

>From their feature list, it sounds very similar to ours. Amazing how you find similar software *after* you wrote your own - and I did search for such cross-platform installers before I started the project. :-/

We started to use InstallJammer last year (2009) on some projects due to some further enhancement of 'freedom hating' policies of InstallShield. Although most of my initial application for this was for Windows, the advent of Windows 7/Vista and the virtual 'Program Files' directory, etc. that is a part of the Windows Install libraries meant that I was forced to upgrade our installer frameworks anyway.

We've been building installers with InstallJammer ever since, and I have to say its incredible. There are a few open source installer makers out there, but I could not find one that had the ability to get down to the lower levels in an installer, such as executing custom code, reading & writing of complex registry settings, etc. Yet with all of this Windows capabilities, it hasn't lost anything in terms of deploying *Nix apps as well.

I understand the desire to build another Installer maker application, and I commend anyone for wanting to spend time doing this on an open source project. However it might be worthwhile considering if the same goals could be achieved by supporting the InstallJammer project in some way. The original author is a really nice guy, and has really gone out of his way to help me in their forums.

Myles

So far I hadn't the time to setup a webpage for it - Is it ok to send it to you by mail?

Regards
Lukas

If only I found InstallJammer a few months ago, then I would definitely not have bothered with our custom installer. But like I said, I only found out about it now, and already implemented most of our installer features - so no point in just discarding all the effort I already put into it. But I will definitely take a look at InstallJammer as well.

Graeme, InstallJammer(It has the advantage of being cross) is as good as InnoSetup + ISTool.

Make some tests with it, you'll like it ;)

You had asked about multiplatform installers a few months ago, and somebody mentioned InstallJammer at the time!