Simplifying Installation and updating

From Bioinformatics.Org Wiki

• (Brian) - makeframework.csh should create symbolic links to the current production version of BIRCH, for use by getbirch.py.
• put something into local/admin/birch.properties to tell birchconfig if a birch system is a development platform (eg. psgendb, albacore etc.) Just as a safeguard against clobbering the master copy of bin-xxx-xxx_D.tar.gz)
• Add documentation on upgrading from linux x86 to x86_64. (Change platform.source, platform.profile.source, and BIRCH.properties, plus local bin and lib directories). Need a short statement that linux-intel can be run on linux-x86_64 system.
• Currently,  BIRCH must be completely uninstalled in order to update to a new version. Is there a way to update a 'live' BIRCH installation, so that there is no downtime? This is particularly critical if people are going to run long-running jobs.
  • (Dale) Using a version manifest (SVN can do this for us), we can see what files have been changes and only update those files which were changed. This may or may not imply downtime, we could make a script that would check if it is possible to do a live update, and prompt the user for their decision?

We need to overhaul the installation and updating process

• Make this easy for the workstation user
• It can be almost entirely automated, maybe including downloads
• birchconfig needs to have a section that checks for viewers, text editors etc., tests them, and sets defaults

Update: See Getbirch for more information

Modularization

Right now, there is one BIRCH download with everything but the kitchen sink. Could we create a more modular architecture that lets people do a custom install, depending on their needs? This could also pave the way for adding things on the fly, or even adding non-free software, if there was some way to create a wrapper for the non-free package, if it was independently installed on the system.

At install, we could ask the user if they want a custom install.

• ideas from GNOME updater
• from Linux Anaconda installer

BIRCH site: changes to "download BIRCH"

Ideas:

1. Have a link directly to the BIRCH download page on the main BIRCH site (eg, under "software" -> Download BIRCH)
2. The "Download BIRCH" page should have two options:
   1. Automatic install (at the top) -> Links to the "getbirch" page, uses getbirch for installation
   2. Manual install (the idea is to deprecate this) -> Links to the current download pages/documentation, for users that want to manually specify this, or for users that cannot use getbirch

The main idea:

1. From any BIRCH site, users should have a link to "getbirch.jar" and the associated documentation. The documentation should be as simple and minimalistic as possible
2. We want to keep the manual download option, at least until we are sure that getbirch is working on all platforms for all users as we expect it to.