Although this document appears well enumerated this process is definitely NOT a turn-key solution. In order to make complex application work under this system you WILL need to understand the ins and outs of how this system works. It takes a lot of trial and error to get each application to the point where it will install without problems (or at least no serious ones). However, once you get an application to "clean" point, you can recover your wasted time because you will no longer have to install it by hand.
This document uses a document variable called (JDIR) to represent the location where most of this portion of the Jacal system are located. On our CSS network this location is /samba/progs1/Installs (on samson).
The samba share that maps to the (JDIR) directory will from here on be referred to as \\(JSHARE). On the CSS network this share can be mapped from the UNC \\samson\installs.
Scripts for this portion of the JACAL system are stored on samson in (JDIR)/scripts/ or via UNC at \\(JSHARE)\scripts\.
"Install Source location" --> This is a location where the locally installed files for an application are stored. Usually (JDIR)/installs/msoffice97/.
"Execution location" --> This is the location where applications will actually be run from. On our network these shares are on samson in the /samba/progs2 and /samba/progs3 directories. We usually create a unique samba share on samson for each application. For example, \\samson\msoffice97.
One of annoyances in working with this system is that the sysdiff utility insists on using "$" symbols in its file and directory naming scheme. Since bash shell interprets $'s as special symbols it becomes necessary to quote any path that contains $'s. For example, test_the_$$ would become "test_the_\$\$" (with the quotes and backslashes).
The term repathing a shortcut refers to changing the path of the target of the shortcut (and optionally the starting directory). Normally a shortcut would point to c:\Program Files\MS Office 97\winword.exe as its target. Our goal is to point that shortcut at \\samson\msoffice97\winword.exe. (same target, different path, thus, repathing).
There are certain install sources images that are used for special maintenance purposes that are not directly associated with specific applications. These are prefixed with "fix_". For example, to set the local machine path (which essentially functions as the global path for everybody, we use an install source directory called fix_path. The normal procedure is to delete the local machine path from other .inf files and add any necessary paths to the .inf in fix_path.
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