Introduction

A resource is anything a package would like to change on the target system. Examples of resources are:

• installation directory
• entry in the start menu
• PATH variable

A package should never change the default settings for a resource (e. g. editor for a file type or default browser search engine) during installation. This could overwrite the preferred user choice. The main goal is to avoid conflicts between different packages and different versions of the same package.

Installation directory

Each package is installed in a separate directory. Only packages installed externally may share one installation directory or be installed in a sub-directory of another external package. These rules avoid conflicts between different packages.

Entries in the start menu

Each package version can define different entries for the start menu (see RepositoryFormat). Npackd manages these entries automatically. They are created whenever a package is installed and deleted if a package gets uninstalled. Version number and package title are added to the file names like "ABC (2.4.1)" or "Read Me (ABC 2.4.1)" so that there will be no conflicts between different packages or different versions of the same package.

Shortcuts in the Quick Launch Bar

The shortcuts in the Quick Launch Bar should never be created by an installation. They will be automatically deleted after an installation if created. The Quick Launch Bar can only be edited by user and should only contain often used applications.

PATH

The PATH variable cannot be perfectly shared between different packages as the order of entries is significant. Nonetheless adding command line utilities to the PATH is useful and is done in the default repositories. New entries are appended to the PATH during installation and removed during uninstallation. This avoids most conflicts associated with PATH. Adding libraries to the PATH does not make much sense as library packages tend to have many incompatible versions. Adding libraries to the PATH increases the risk of a wrong library version being chosen.