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store dependency in VIP file (as in VIPC)

Bela Komoroczy 11 years ago updated by Michael Aivaliotis (VIPM Product Manager) 11 years ago 1

Problem Description: When I use the VI Package Builder, I can make a list of package dependencies, which becomes a .VIPC file in the root folder of VI Package.

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There is even a button in the "Package Dependencies" section to "Open VI Package Configuration". This opens up VIPC editor, where I can explicitly select for each entry if I want include only the link to the VIP or the whole VIP.

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After closing the VIPC editor I am still in the VI Package Builder. I makes me very confident that the settings I have made in the VIPC editor are valid for the VI package I am editing right now.

But apparently it not this way. It brings up some other problems, which are real problems (not just theoretical) to me:

If a VIP (call it a.vip) has a dependency(call it a_dep.vip) that is used in the Pre or Post-Install steps, than I start to have a dependency hierarchy. If a.vip is a dependency to a new new.vip than it's not enough anymore to just include the the a.vip and the a_dep.vip in a VIPC file with the new.vip. From this point on nothing guarantees that a_dep.vip will be installed before a.vip.


Idea:

The option to have VIP file dependencies copied into the VIP file should be possible in the future. I find it the easiest to just simply reflect the status of the packages in the .VIPC file. There could be a switch like "Import Stored packages from VIPC file?" to keep compatibility with previous versions of VIPM.

Dependencies are typically installed from the bottom-up by VIPM. Lower-level dependencies are installed first. However you do not have full control over this ordering.