rewrite of AIPS install procs

[K. Desai]

Pat,

I also spent two days a few weeks ago trying to rearrange INSTEP1.

I offer the following comments regarding your division of stuff.:

I think steps 1 and 2 should not be included.
Checking dates should be part of the discovery phase in step 3.

I had a similar vision for step 3 which also should set things up for
step 4 so sensible defaults exist.

I disagree on the uninstall as you stated it.

My vision for the whole thing is like this:
Lets say that:

1) Tonight, I go grab a tarball labelled 23FEB00 from the official site
[whereever that is...] and untar it in /AIPS   [eg].

2) I cd into /AIPS/23FEB00/config and run a script called MACE [make aips
configuration environment] which is a standalone thingee that creates

23FEB00/config/HOSTS.LIST
23FEB00/config/PRINTERS.LIST
23FEB00/config/TAPES.LIST
23FEB00/config/DISKS.LIST
23FEB00/config/...

and populates these files with [optionally] new info or fake template info
to help the installer figure out what to put into each file or
old info grabbed from a previous install [see below].

3) Then I run a script called ASCC  [aips system configuration check] that
checks these configuration files and confirms consistency - each printer 
definition makes sense, there is
only one default printer, the disks referred to in DISKS.LIST exist and
are properly set up [SPACE, permissions, etc], ...

4) Then a step that launches those parts of INSTEP2, INSTEP3, and INSTEP4
that are still needed to complete the install.  This leaves the executables
in /AIPS/23FEB00/LINUX/LOAD /AIPS/23FEB00/SUL/LOAD  etc.

5) If everything works, i can optionally run SAM [setup aips mnj] to keep this
installation automatically updated.

In a year from now, I get an email from aips-alert at nrao.edu that says,
"Hey man, there are some funky midnight job changes coming down the line.
You probably want to freeze your current installation as is and put in a new
one to be safe." So, I go through the following steps:

0) cd into 23FEB00 and run DAM [disable aips mnj].

1) go grab 05JAN01 from the official site and untar it into /AIPS/05JAN01.

and install it as above.

Key points about this would be:
1) in step 2 for 05JAN01, the configuration from 23FEB00 is optionally copied
over to 05JAN01 - not linked or otherwise still connected.  23FEB00 is simply 
taken as a template for the local installation.  The expectation is that one
never wants to go back - only to go forward. This assumes AIPS always gets 
better and never worse.  Not going back makes lots of thing simpler.
Of course, going back is a possible necessity until one is sure that things
are going to work - so just overwriting an existing installation is a bad idea.

2) all configuration information should be consolidated so wiping out an
architecture, restarting the install for an architecture, or simply starting
an install over for an entire site is as simple as recursively deleting 
from some master directory.  also, installing a new tarball becomes simple as
the entire config directory can be copied over in toto from an old installation
as a first pass at the new configuration.


I can only say that all this is motivated by fear, loathing, and anticipation.
fear - if something goes wrong, i still want to be able to use an old
       installation with no worries because the two setups are quite different.
loathing - i hate reinstalling so updating a tarball [mnj] should be easy but
           i loathe mnj changes that break things so turning the mnj on/off
           easily should be dead easy
anticipation - i want to grab all the latest goodies easily so a new install
               [or putting in a mnj] should also be dead easy...

is this helpful?
[as far as gui/cl], i agree with chris, cl is the way to go.  all the best[!]
packages that work are cl based installs [so there!]. gui-based installs look 
purty but can be _real_ frustrating when things go wrong...