[plt-scheme] Re: install script comments

Eli Barzilay wrote:
> On May 19, David Van Horn wrote:
> 
>>I just downloaded and installed DrScheme 207 for Solaris.  I think
>>the install script is great, however I think a couple improvements
>>could be made.
>>
>>When creating symbolic links, if the file exists already as a file
>>(not just a link), then installation fails.  It would be nice if
>>prompted to delete the file or skip creating a link.
> 
> The link is made with `ln -sf' which should remove an existing file.
> If that fails, then no prompts should help...  (I considered `ln -si',
> but after reinstalling a new version you'll just want to update all
> links.)

It doesn't on my system, even though the manuals state that it should.

> touch linktest
> ln -sf linktest linktest-ln
> ln -sf linktest linktest-ln
ln: cannot create linktest-ln: File exists

However, this works fine:

> rm -f linktest-ln ; ln -s linktest linktest-ln

>>The next time I run the install script I'm prompted to delete the plt 
>>directory I just created.  An option to use the directory and skip the 
>>extraction step would've saved a ton of time.
> 
> This is the behavior of every installer I've seen, including GUI
> installers -- I've never seen an installer say "a version of ... was
> found, do you want to reuse it".
> 
> (Why would you want to run the same install script twice?)

Because it failed the first time and I had to remove the links in the bin
and man directories.

David