While managing a large group of OSX workstations, a lot of my
time has been spent repackaging software for remote installation.
I'm a big fan of the Debian package management system and the Fink
project. I see some potential in the Apple package system with
PackageMaker, Installer, /Library/Receipts, and the bom files.
I don't know of anything close to what you're really talking about,
but there are some things that can make the process easier. There are
a couple tools that make package creation simple: logGen and Iceberg.
logGen lets you make "before" and "after" snapshots of your hard
drive, then compares them so you can see all the files that were
added by an installation. To actually make the package, you tell
Iceberg which files are needed. It creates the installation scripts
so that the files end up in the correct places, and pulls everything
together to actually make the package.
My setup is stable enough that I've never needed to implement it, but
Radmind seems to fulfill some of your needs. By adding/removing lines
to special scripts (which are basically lists of available file sets
you want installed on a particular machine), Radmind automatically
makes sure each client system contains only what you want it to.
Presumably, an inventory could be kept/created by parsing these scripts.
Commercial applications cannot easily be managed unless their makers
conform to best practices. The following things would be required:
- A proper OS X package for installation. Most commercial apps still
use stupid junk like "Installer VISE". Drag installers are a step
somewhere in between (like Acrobat Pro 7), but installing a program
just by copying doesn't create a receipt.
- The first launch may not require an admin password so that support
files can be copied to /Library (a common problem with drag-
installs). Either all file copying is part of the initial
installation, or there is a command-line tool provided inside the
package to do so remotely.
- Serial number entry must be possible remotely.
Good luck with all that. :-)
BTW, are conflicts and dependencies really an issue? I'm speaking
purely of Mac apps, not X11 stuff.
I think the larger issue is simply that if a program isn't licensed
Freely, or its creators don't conform to certain guidelines, it's not
feasible for 3rd parties to "manage" it in any way.
Matt
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