Windows Packager
Simple package distribution utility for Windows

This program is used to push/pull software packages, such as Service Packs,
hotfixes, or program installations from a central server to a number of
workstations.

Package definitions are stored in packages.xml, profile definitions in
profiles.xml and host definitions in hosts.xml. The configuration is stored in
config.xml.

A package is a software entity that can be installed and removed by running a
series of command lines. All of those commands must be successful, either by
returning a zero exit code, or by returning an exit code listed for the
command.

The system keeps track of what versions of what packages are currently
installed and what version are available in order to decide whether to install,
remove, or upgrade a package.

Profiles denote a certain "class" of workstations, such as departments.
Profiles can depend on other profiles making the resulting profile including all
packages from the profile it depends on.

Host definitions are used by WPKG to assign profiles to hosts depending on their
host name or IP address. Regular expression matching can be used for simplified
group matching.

A Host definition assigns a profile to the host WPKG is running on. A profile
can depend on other profiles and assign packages. The packages finally define
how the package/software is installed on the host.

Installation consists of copying the wpkg.js, packages.xml, profiles.xml, 
hosts.xml and config.xml files to a centralized folder on a file server.

The administrator would then define his packages in packages.xml, and then 
define his profile structure in profiles.xml. Each workstation will need to 
be configured to run the WPKG command in order to install/update/remove 
packages from itself. The recommended way to achieve this is to install WPKG
client which runs on the client as a Windows service.

The values in config.xml control WPKG behaviour but in most environments the
values can be kept at their defaults. Open the file in your favourite XML
editor. It contains a lot of comments to describe each parameter.

Logs are reported to the Windows Event Log ant to plain-text log files which can
be stored on a public share too.


For installation instructions, documentation and additional info, visit
<http://wpkg.org/>