Talk:Extended host attribute matching

Could the person posting the O/S strings explain their usefulness?

Anyone can check them out in their log files ;-)

StefanP 19:31, 27 July 2011 (CEST)

I thought they could be useful if you are going to prepare your packages for a specific OS. Of cause everybody can check them out from the logs, but if you are in the process of setting up packages for new OSs the list might come handy. I personally really would like to know what OS strings there are "in the wild".

When building regular expressions it is always nice to know what strings they might match. Sure, you can parse your logs on your own, but isn't it nicer if there is some community driven list already available?

If you don't like the idea, feel free to remove the list I have started.

I do not think about removing it, but about its usefulness.

Wouldn't a generic list be as good?

Who really needs the different editions of Win7 (Ultimate, Professional, Home, Starter), if there is no significant difference?

I envision a list of pattern matches like below.

Windows XP SP2 ................. os="sp2.+5\.1\.[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]"

Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 ... os="6\.1\.[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]"

Windows Server 2008 R2 ...... os="server.+6\.1\.[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]"

This would be something a user can use directly, without the need to invent match pattern on their own.

What do you think?

StefanP 00:04, 1 August 2011 (CEST)

It depends on what you are trying to achieve. I am in the need of installing different applications for different editions of Windows 7, so I need to know about the strings to identify them. Because of that, and the fact that I do not own all the strings and was hoping that the community might be of help with that, I have started this list. But I do agree that a generic list might be of better use for 99% of the people out there.

Some sort of community forum might be the better place to have an actively maintained list of strings but sadly (as of my opinion) there is no such "official" forum for wpkg... or am I just blind?

OK, I can now see what you are after.

I will update the list to be a table in the following format:

O/S String, Match pattern

This way we should satisfy 100% of the users.

StefanP 09:38, 1 August 2011 (CEST)

Great. And thank you for the additional strings you've added. Will be of use for me!

I have added another set of strings, so users are now able to see the naming rules of M$, which are a bit confusing.

StefanP 19:40, 1 August 2011 (CEST)

What do you think about adding some sort of "extended regular expressions" to the os strings matching section? For example the regexp " (5\.[1-2]|6\.\d)\.\d{4}$" would match all OSs from XP 'til now. Interesting for others than me?? ;o)

Since this is a wiki, there is nothing holding you back from doing so ;-)

StefanP 09:41, 5 August 2011 (CEST)

19/11/12 : What groups does the groups option refer to? I'm assuming its not AD groups as there is no other reference to AD in this page. On that subject what are the chances of this host functionality being extended further to include 1) "Free drive space > X", 2) Active directory OU = XXX, 3) Active directory group =XXX. I'm sure I've read this somewhere but just can't get Google to give me the answers.

These are regular groups and not OUs, as you can build groups for users, you can build groups for other units.

Ad 1) there is a free space script in the user contribution section, which I use too.

Ad 2) if I remember correctly Rainer has explained that this won't be build in, if there is not much demand for it. The bug reporting system will give you some insight into the discussion.

StefanP 10:51, 20 November 2012 (CET)