The Manager is conceptually derived from the way *BSD Unix systems manage their Ports collections (in "/usr/src"). Generally, the ports directory is a local checkout of the main CVS repository maintained by a dedicated team. This directory contains files which tell the local system where to find distribution files, how to download and process them and how to install or uninstall them. This makeds it remarkably easy to install software and to keep these instalations current.
The ReOS Manager uses a directory of package description files (updated via CVS through an SSH tunnel) which describe software packages and how to install and uninstall them. To install a package, it calls a set of Perl scripts, which use Wget to download the actual software package from its home site, and then installs it. For installing the ReOS system itself, as Perl cannot be depended toexist on a stock BeOS install, we use sh scripts to install: the /boot/reos directory, WGet, CVS, Perl, SSH and the ReOS Manager.
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The packages repository is a heirarchical directory structure, the levels of which are known in the Manager code as category, subCategory, app and version. For example, the Perl package resedes in "devtools/languages/Perl/5.5.3r0"; for this package, these labels are:
- category - devtools
- subCategory - languages
- app - Perl
- version - 5.5.3r0
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