NI Package Management Idea Exchange

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I created a package in LabVIEW 2020 which (obviously) depends on LabVIEW runtime and other things. When I create the feed from LabVIEW, it includes all of these -- Excellent!

I have additional packages that I want to create in NI Package Builder which are add-ons to the LV solution to support a Plugin Architecture.

I can include the LabVIEW package as a dependency (assuming it's installed), but when I create the feed, it does NOT include the nested dependencies.

It would be very nice to include an option for dependencies to "Detect and Include dependencies"

Hello,

I used to distribute a software with non-package installer. Then, we switched to a package installer. It is built using NI Package Builder.
Unfortunately, NI Package builder doesn't uninstall previous versions as it doesn't know the relationship.

Please, could you implement in the UI the possibility to specify "conflicts" and "replaces" relationships as described in this document?
http://www.ni.com/documentation/en/ni-package-manager/latest/manual/control-file-attributes/

Also discussed on the forum: https://forums.ni.com/t5/NI-Package-Manager-NIPM/Nothing-but-confusion-about-building-and-using-packages/m-p/3938499/highlight/true?profile.language=fr#M91

Romain

Blacklisting packages

I'd like a way of "blacklisting" an NIPM package, even if it's in a feed and selected for install For example, I could register the feed for the package "ni-labview-2020-core-x86-en" and also want to install all of the recommended packages (using the --include-recommended flag), except for one. Let's say for some reason I don't want Report Gen Toolkit, for example.

The only option I can currently come up with is installing LabVIEW 2020 without any of it's recommended packages, then installing all of the recommended packages separately, except omitting RGTK. It would be really great if there was a command to simply prevent RGTK from ever installing, even when using the "--include-recommended" argument.

In terms of use cases, let's say an administrator wants to give their users some freedom, but never wants a particular package installed (or upgraded past a certain point) for some reason. This would be similar to the dpkg or apt functionality described here (https://www.linuxuprising.com/2018/10/how-to-keep-package-from-updating-in.html) or (I think) the okpg "flag" operation described here (https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/additional-software/opkg).

About the software install path

I am building a custom offline installer for LabVIEW and Teststand and share it with people in my organization. I created a single installer which included both 32-bit and 64-bit LabVIEW versions and few add-ons that are required for the tools that we developed. The problem I see is if the user selects one version of LabVIEW, the add-ons for that bitness alone has to be selected automatically. But there is no option to specify such dependencies in the Package builder

Please allow a user to see which package(s) that were manually selected lead to the automatic removal of each package in the "will be automatically removed" list.

If you select some packages to remove, sometimes the uninstall dialog lists a collection of packages that depend on something you've selected.

These must also be removed if you want to remove whatever you selected (so as not to leave them broken).

However, if I select a collection of packages to remove, and see something in this list I want to retain, it can be difficult to see which package I should remove from my selection (after pressing cancel) in order to not trigger the removal of the package I want to retain.

recent installation of SPB2019 from an offline installer package (due to poor connection) in my new machine has included a malfunctioned LM (constantly fail to connect server), and solution provided was to remove and reinstall the LM. Upon the initiation of the removal, NIPM removed all installed license-able (but yet to be activated software) software from my machine... with no possible way to stop the process... the HORROR on my face is no less than this guy here =>

can I suggest LM removal to remove the LM and activated licenses only; rather than all the other un-selected, but license-able software?

Cosmetic / Minor issue

I have a solution with one underscore character in its file name. It is properly displayed in the window title bar, but undescore is missing in most recently used files, under File menu.

I made some complementary tests, with dummy solution files named Undescore_One.pbs, Undescore_One_Two.pbs and Undescore_One_Two_Three.pbs. Only the first underscore in the file name is missing in menu display:

I am using NI Package Builder 20.6.0.1227.

Regards,

When installing NI software with NIPM, it would be useful for NIPM to be able to connect to VLA server and determine avalable software to install based on the available licenses.

Example:

A user wants to install NI software and contacts the VLA administrator.
The VLA administrator assigns software rights to the user/computer and instructs the user to download and install NIPM and connect to VLA server
The user installs NIPM and is given an option to select software based on the VLA

This could be used instead of a "Volume license installer" avaliable in VLM.

Best regards

Matej Zorko

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I'd like to be able to select a collection of nipkg files in e.g. Windows Explorer and use NIPM to install them in the correct order based on their interdependencies.

If I create a local feed and add that, then NIPM will allow this via selection in the Packages tab.

However, there doesn't seem to be a method to select multiple files that are not in a feed using a GUI (Windows Explorer or NIPM etc).

VIPM has an "Open Package File(s)" menu item that fills this role.

I think (although I didn't test, because I didn't consider this when I was running into this issue) that using "nipkg.exe install A.nipkg B.nipkg C.nipkg" would work for this, so there is a workaround. I just didn't consider it earlier...

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You can add folders to the "inputs" in NIPB, and they will auto detect if files have been changed / added to the solution.

If you ad a folder (or a complex folder hierarchy) to a package, it disconnects ALL of the folders. I completely understand why this might be done, but it creates a slightly unexpected disconnect between the "inputs" and the "package workspace"

If files are updated, those updates propagate between both locations -- Great!

If files are added, those updates propagate to the Inputs, but NOT the workspace.

This can be pretty frustrating, especially for deeply nested folder structures...

My request is not that this is entirely switched, but rather an option to add a linked folder to the workspace... My thought is that this would function much like the "autopopulating folders" from labVIEW (vs snapshots) -- Though it would be nice if the base added folder could have it's name changed and still maintain the link (though not required).

Hi forum, would like to propose the idea above 👆

A brief explanation of the the idea would be, if the NIPM package is opened from an ISO of a local repository (running install.exe from a mounted ISO), NIPM should install the entire package from that ISO, unless the package have a mismatch inside the ISO. this applies for offline installers, where user is responsible to check the ISO's hash once it is downloaded.

if the package installation is requested from the feed list inside of NIPM, only then it should download from NI through the internet

just an idea... to reduce possible installation errors

The Control File Attributes page shows as an example near the bottom the following:

In the following example, the Depends attribute declares a dependency on package01 version 2.2.1 or later, and states that package03 is an alternative package that satisfies the dependency on package02.

Depends: package01 (>= 2.2.1), package02 | package03

However, it doesn't indicate which package will be (automatically) installed if both package02 and package03 are available in feeds, and neither is installed.

If the first is always the chosen package, can this please be clarified in documentation?

If the order does not determine the package (but instead it depends on the feed, etc) could this either be

a) changed to order, or

b) clarified in documentation along with some manner to manipulate the preference?

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NI Package Management Idea Exchange