The "uploader" mystery, continued

It seems that a few of the "uploader" archives contains faulty install scripts.

Examples:

http://os4depot.net/index.php?functio ... iver/input/mmkeyboard.lha

http://os4depot.net/index.php?functio ... utility/misc/meridian.lha

http://os4depot.net/index.php?functio ... e&file=utility/misc/r.lha

Should I just delete these archives? How can I get the "uploader" to not upload archives with broken installers?

Delete the archives or track him down.

@orgin
If you enter "r.lha" in the OS4depot search gadget it finds "anotheribtoolbar.lha" and "ibtoolbar_nf.lha" but not "r.lha". That would seem to indicate that the search function is broken but I don't think it means you should delete OS4Depot from the Internet; It might still be useful

@xenic

Quote:

That's the intended behaviour. The file ending isn't part of the match criteria. Only the filename part of the filename, the file description and the package name is part of the match criteria. In this case it finds those two files because their description contains the string "r.lha".

The simple search tries to match "r.lha" to all files finding it in the following strings (Ignore color coding):



To quote the search page:
When searching for filenames don't include the file ending (such as .lha/.lzx etc)


The SQL search can search for the complete filename and will find r.lha, however it will find any filename containing the string "r.lha". The search parameters are always wild carded. In this instance "%r.lha%".

It could be that the scripts are not broken but should be used with geit's installer replacement.
http://geit.de/eng_additional.html

@ZeroG

If the requirements don't mention that, then they are broken.

Best regards,

Niels

Surely this is something which should be reported to the author(s) of the software, not the mysterious uploader, whom I am guessing did not modify the installation scripts or any other part of the archive, and is unlikely to either be interested nor be in a position to fix them. If the archive has been modified then the author is still likely to want to know about this anyway.

@orgin

I changed offending line in the install scripts for the programs you mentioned in order to actually install them. "R" doesn't seem to work like it did when I used it on a classic Amiga. "Meridian" just brings up a Grim Reaper for me so I didn't even bother with "mmkeyboard".

Grabbing program archives from other WEB sites and uploading them to OS4Depot without testing them first is obviously a bad idea. I'd say delete those 3 files and inform "uploader" that programs need to be installed and tested before uploading them to OS4Depot.

@nbache

In fact they do a version test before execute version 44 features, the unfortunate things is that versions 50+ skipped over the 44 features and started from the original commodore feature set.

I remember a few things like this some years back, they mostly died out, these project actually appear quite old though, and reports suggest they don't work on 4.1+

@broadblues

Quote:Yes, but from what I understand, that is because the source code to the versions of Installer made for OS 3.5 and 3.9 was never shared, so it couldn't be used for further development.

This automatically disqualified these versions from being official for OS4+, so as I said, any package which uses an installer script requiring these blind branch versions and claiming to be for OS4+ (e.g. by being uploaded to OS4Depot), is broken.

Just my opinion, of course.

Best regards,

Niels

@broadblues
What I never understood us why OS4's installer didn't just implement the missing v44 features as dummy functions that did nothing (except prevent the script from failing). Generally the v44 functions (used) are just for superfluous stuff like displaying nice graphics during the installation, so ignoring them is not harmful.

@ChrisH

I believe the reasoning - FWIW - is that they don't want to use any of the scarce developer efforts on the old Installer, but rather nudge people to use the new Installation utility instead.

Best regards,

Niels

@nbache
Unfortunately that doesn't help with the old-ish (OS3.5+) installer scripts out there. :(

@ChrisH

I know - hence my "FWIW".

Best regards,

Niels

Ohh well, didn't get anywhere with this so I just deleted the three broken archives.