[EROS-Arch] Installers

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

> Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 19:12:42 -0500 (EST)
> From: kragen@pobox.com (Kragen Sitaker)
[...]
> I think installers should be Turing-complete --- after all, the
> software they're installing is, and presumably you're going to run that
> software eventually, or you wouldn't install it, and presumably the
> person who created the installer also has control over the installed
> program --- but they rarely need to be Turing-complete programs with
> complete control over your system.

Right.

> The authorities the installer needs should be declared, not computed;
> they are, in some sense, the equivalent of the undefined external
> symbols in an object file.  But the installer itself should be
> Turing-complete.

The  declarations  probably has  been  computed  some  time ago  (when
generating the package, be it by software or by wetware). Therefore, I
don't  see the  difference and  the  advantage to  request a  _static_
declaration of  the authorities the  installer needs over  having some
installation program or script compute them at installation time. What
did I missed?


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