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SXE - Installer/Package Manager Overview

Qtopia provides a simplified software installation system in a system binary called packagemanger.

Note that earlier versions of Qtopia for PDA's provided a utility to install packages utilizing the ipkg system. There is no such facility currently in Qtopia. The SXE PackageManager is not a general purpose package installation system

Additionally to create safe execution images using the make install command during development and when readying a device image for shipping, on a device, the installer tool sxe_installer is provided.

The following features are provided:

• fetch Package list from remote server via HTTP
• display package information, in particular categories
• ungzip, untar and install of qipkg format packages
• modifications to the two SXE policy rules tables
• installation of run-time keys into binaries
• provide uninstall capability.

Note: there is no feature planned to check for dependencies on other packages.

Programs packaged for Qtopia 4.2.2 and later depend simply on the Qtopia version number. See Qpk packages.

Packages which do not fit the version requirement will not be presented for download or installation.

In future, the device architecture control file information will be used to present the user first with packages known and tested for that device (eg sl5600), then if desired the user can navigate to additional packages which are not tested on that device.

Applications which are not certified run with the SANDBOX attribute which means that only files specifically allowed may be accessed. Applications are by default installed in /usr/local/<app-name> and have by default read-only access to all system libraries, and read-write access to a /tmp/<app-name> directory and the /usr/local/<app-name> directory. During package installation the PackageManager will update Qtopia's miime-types to reflect any values from the Domain field. This will have two effects:

1. the packaged application will be registered as being available to handle files of that mime-type
2. it will be allowed read-only access to those documents in the users document collection at run-time via the Document System

If the package also has the editor Domain value, the application will be allowed read-write access.