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News 2005

Come back to see all WPKG news...

09.12.2005

WPKG 0.9.2 has been released.

This is a stable release.

WPKG-0.9.2-test1 released as 0.9.2 (stable) - no changes.


03.12.2005

WPKG 0.9.2-test1 has been released.

This is a testing release.

Changes after 0.9.1:

  • fixed bug 6 (regenerate wpkg.xml)
  • fixed bug 11 (execute="once" broken)
  • some check types were removed because they introduced many bugs and weren't tested very well:
    • registry: missing, equalsnocase, equals, lessthan, greaterthan
    • file: missing, sizeequals, sizelessthan, sizegreaterthan

Depending on the user input, these features may be reintroduced again some day in the future (did anyone use it?)


13.11.2005

WPKG 0.9.1 has been released.

This is a stable release.

Changes after 0.9:

  • execute="always" attribute (it's more clear now that the "install cmd" will be executed each time)
  • WPKG can notify the user upon the installation of selected packages with notify="true" attribute
  • added sample wpkg-start.bat with examples on how to start WPKG


31.10.2005

Our all pages are in WIKI now!

This means you can add/edit/correct nearly all WPKG-related content.

I also hope everything looks better now.


10.10.2005

WPKG 0.9.1-test1 has been released.

This is a testing release.

Thu Oct 10 2005

V 0.9.1-test1

wpkg.js changes after 0.9:

  • execute="always" attribute (it's more clear now that the "install cmd" will be executed each time)
  • WPKG can notify the user upon the installation of selected packages with notify="true" attribute

Thanks to K. Dohmann for sending a patch!


08.09.2005

WPKG 0.9 has been released.

This is a stable release.

No changes after WPKG 0.9-test5 were made.


25.08.2005

WPKG 0.9-test5 has been released.

This is a testing release.

Thu Aug 25 2005

V 0.9-test5

wpkg.js changes after 0.9-test4:

Thanks to Suuri Kikkeli for sending a patch!


19.08.2005

We have a Bugzilla running now!

For those interested in reporting bugs, adding feature requests, sending patches, please visit http://bugzilla.wpkg.org/.


14.07.2005

WPKG 0.9-test4 has been released.

This is a testing release.

Thu Jul 14 2005

V 0.9-test4

wpkg.js changes after 0.9-test3:

  • new, very detailed checks (see packages.xml for more info) - thanks to Gordon Klimm
  • removing packages now always use "remove cmd" from packages.xml which is on the server, not wpkg.xml on the client - thanks to Gordon Klimm again


08.07.2005

WPKG 0.9-test3 has been released.

This is a testing release.

Fri Jul 8 2005

V 0.9-test3

wpkg.js changes after 0.9-test2:

  • new flag: /noreboot - system will not reboot, regardless of need
  • /nonotify should really work now...


06.07.2005

WPKG 0.9-test2 has been released.

This is a testing release.

Wed Jul 6 2005

V 0.9-test2

wpkg.js changes after 0.9-test1:

  • new flag: /nonotify - use it together with /quiet to get rid of all WPKG output / notify window.


04.07.2005

WPKG 0.9-test1 has been released.

This is a testing release.

Mon Jul 4 2005

V 0.9-test1

wpkg.js changes after 0.8:

  • querying packages now works fully (all /show: and /query: will work)

Thanks to Gordon Klimm for sending patches!


01.07.2005

WPKG 0.8 has been released.

This is a stable release.

Fri Jul 1 2005

V 0.8

wpkg.js changes after 0.8-test2:

  • small typos in wpkg.js
  • For a list of changes between between the stable releases, see the changelog for 0.8-test1 and 0.8-test2 (below)


28.06.2005

WPKG 0.8-test2 has been released.

This is a testing release.

Tue Jun 28 2005

V 0.8-test2

wpkg.js changes after 0.8-test1:

  • small corrections in wpkg.js addressing wrong warnings in certain cases
  • additional comments in hosts.xml


20.06.2005

WPKG 0.7 has been released.

This is a stable release.

Mon Jun 20 2005

V 0.7

  • WPKG 0.7 (stable) released with no changes from 0.7-test1.


18.06.2005

WPKG 0.8-test1 has been released.

This is a testing release.

Sat Jun 18 2005

V 0.8-test1

wpkg.js changes after 0.7-test1:

  • new functionality: you can execute scripts/programs once - useful for the tasks you want to do one time only, like disk defragmenting, some testing, changing printers etc.
     <package execute="once">

After that, this task will be added to wpkg.xml, and will not be executed again.

  • hostname case is now ignored, you can use upper and lower case and it will work
  • WPKG will now tell you if the syntax of XML files is not correct (which line, etc.)
  • new flags:

/debug or /verbose - print everything WPKG does, useful for packet installation debugging (and for new users which need to understand how WPKG works) /dryrun - "simulates" packet installing, without installing anything


11.06.2005

WPKG 0.7-test1 has been released.

This is a testing release.

Sat Jun 11 2005

V 0.7-test1


wpkg.js changes after 0.6:

  • regular expression support in hosts.xml!

You can view the exact syntax on this page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/jscript7/html/jsjsgrpregexpsyntax.asp

Quick examples: 

    <host name="b[0-9]+" profile-id="profile" />

works for: b1, b10, b100 does not work for: bubu, b, x, x1, x10, x100 


    <host name=".+" profile-id="profile" />

works for *all* hosts - use with care (!), place at the bottom of hosts.xml 


    <host name="b.+" profile-id="profile1" />

works for "b10", "b11", "b12345" etc. 


    <host name="b.+" profile-id="profile2" />
    <host name="bronek1" profile-id="profile1" />
    <host name="bron.+" profile-id="profile3" />

Normally, hosts are parsed from top to the bottom, except when the hostname is not a regular expression. So host "bronek" will match "profile1", even though it also matches "b.+" and "bron.+" (which are regular expressions).


  • new flags:

/force - Uses force when performing actions (ignores wpkg.xml).
Handy when you're not sure if your system is "up to date" with the state described in hosts.xml, packages.xml and profiles.xml (i.e., when someone was adding / removing software by other means than WPKG).
It will "scan" your system for all possible packages from packages.xml, and then, install and/or uninstall packages, according to profiles.xml / packages.xml / hosts.xml for a given host.

/forceInstall - Forces installation over existing packages.
The "install" command will be run, even if "check" conditions are met. This can be useful to "repair" packages etc.


10.06.2005

WPKG 0.6 has been released.

Noone reported issues with 0.6-test1, so from now on WPKG 0.6 is officially stable :)


Fri Jun 10 2005

V 0.6

wpkg.js changes after 0.6-test1:

  • More examples in packages.xml on how to use new features


08.06.2005

WPKG 0.6-test1 has been released.

It includes major changes over the latest stable version, including the possibility to check if something was installed in Windows Software Add/remove!

Changes:

Wed Jun 8 2005

V 0.6-test1

wpkg.js changes:

  • Added new check type - it checks if the program is in "Software Add/Remove"

An example entry looks like below: 

     <check type="uninstall" condition="exists" path="Filzip 3.02" />

In the path="" field you just have to add a name which is in Windows Software Add/Remove - and that's it: you no longer have to figure out the registry entries and/or files!

Of course you can still use "file" and "registry" check types, combine them all etc. (all of them have to be met to consider software installed; they will be checked also *after* installation due to the fact that some installers don't handle exit codes properly).


  • Output during the installing looks like below:
     Checking presence of Filzip 3.02; uninstall check condition failed !
     Checking presence of Filzip 3.02; file check condition failed !
     Checking presence of Filzip 3.02; registry check condition failed !
     Installing Filzip 3.02...
     Checking presence of Filzip 3.02; uninstall check condition met.
     Checking presence of Filzip 3.02; file check condition failed !
     Checking presence of Filzip 3.02; registry check condition met.

This can mean: - the installation was unsuccessful (and the package won't be written to %SYSTEM32%\wpkg.xml) because the file check condition was not met, - file check condition has a typo in packages.xml, - you don't have to use that many conditions - one "uninstall" check is often enough.

  • Changed double quotations to single quotations in packages.xml. Some installation instruction may require using double quotations.


06.06.2005

An updated version of WPKG web interface has been uploaded. Get it from the download section.

Short installation instruction:

  • Download WPKG-HTTP (see the download link.
  • Extract it somewhere to you web server tree (for example, /var/www/html/wpkg/).
  • Set the document root of your Apache web server to /var/www/html/wpkg/. Alternatively, you can set the document root of your virtual host to /var/www/html/wpkg/
         DocumentRoot "/var/www/html/wpkg/root"
  • Some directories under wpkg/ should be writable by your Apache server, so don't forget to
         chown -R apache wpkg/
  • If you have any problems, please report it to the mailing list.


04.06.2005

WPKG 0.5-test1 has been released.

Changes include:

wpkg.js changes:

  • Fixed registry checking.
  • If there is no '<check type="...' entry for a given package, '<install cmd="...' will be executed each time the machine is booted. This is useful when one wants to execute certain scripts on each machine startup.
  • If there is more than one '<check type="...' (that is, "file" and "registry"), both of them have to be met to assume the package is installed (before it was OR - so it was any of them).
  • Added checking *after* installation, too. Some installers return exit code 0 (for example, SAS 9.1.3), even though the installation was unsuccessful. This prevents WPKG from writing such package to wpkg.xml in case it wasn't really installed.
  • other changes:

- we have our own domain - wpkg.org :) - the documentation - which is now on http://wpkg.org - has been greatly improved since the last WPKG release (most of you probably noticed that long time ago) - some work has been done on a web interface to WPKG


03.06.2005

A new "announcement" list has been added. It's a very low traffic list. You can subscribe to it if you wish to be up to date with WPKG releases and news.


23.05.2005

An updated version of WPKG web interface has been uploaded. Get it from the download section.


21.05.2005

The documentation has been updated. Easier installation methods has been described.


19.05.2005

You can now download the sources of the WPKG web interface. Get it from the download section. Beware, it's still alpha...


14.05.2005

Some more examples.

A way to integrate with Unattended has been described.


13.05.2005

A site with examples have been added.


12.05.2005

A WPKG http backend demo site has been launched on http://wpkg.bilba.pl

If you would like to help develop it (and see the source code), please let us know on the mailing list. <math>Insert formula here</math>

Last modified on 6 April 2008, at 17:50