Sealed packages

A sealed package is one in which dependencies are placed within the package such that no other packages are required to complete the installation. Currently there is no mechanism to tell autopackage to not download anything to complete the installation. The distinction is that if a dependency is not found within the sealed package, the support code will then try to contact and resolve the dependency. For example, if only the support code is included in the sealed package, the support code would try to download and install the gtk front end automatically. So it is recommended that you include autopackage-gtk package because the support code will try to install the gtk front end during the support code installation.

The dependency packages must be located in the source tree within the `autopackage/packages' directory. The makeinstaller script will detect the packages directory and move the contents into the package.

Looking at inkscape for an example to create a sealed installer:

                
Prepare section in the apspec file states:
require @gtk.org/gtk 2.4
require @gnome.org/libxml 2.0
require @libsigc.sourceforge.net/libsigc 3
require @libpng.org/libpng 3
require @gtkmm.org/gtkmm2 3
require @zlib.org/zlib 1

Add to `autopackage/packages' directory by downloading the available autopackage of the applications for the interface required or you need to build the package and skeleton file. Do not forget to download and add the support code and autopackage-gtk package also.

                
@gtk.org/gtk 2.4 --> core component not packaged
@gnome.org/libxml 2.0 --> core component not packaged
@libsigc.sourceforge.net/libsigc 3 --> libsigc++-2.0.3.x86.package
@libpng.org/libpng 3 --> core component not packaged
@gtkmm.org/gtkmm2 3 --> glibmm-2.4.4.x86.package
@zlib.org/zlib 1 --> core component not packaged 
autopackage.tar.bz2 --> most recently released archive 
autopackage-gtk-1.0.x86.package --> most recently released package

At the moment there is no difference between a sealed installer versus including the same files in the directory where the main application package is located. In the future there will a more differences in using a sealed installer such as installing a private autopackage support code for the application which does not touch the rest of the system. The private copy of the support code would be removed along with its application.