Re: Creating an iPhone distribution

Thanks Andrew,

That's useful, though it's a shame to have to rely on a third party product. There's also Netatalk on Cydia which installs Apple's AFP protocol, allowing network drive-style browsing from Finder without a computer-side 'client' application, but obviously this solution doesn't cross platforms (and indeed iExplorer doesn't support any form of *nix).

There's a further implicit problem - how to actually inform the user of *anything* when they install something via Cydia! Each app there does have a descriptive page, but a. it is interspersed with very off-putting adverts and b. there is no common format hence it is difficult to pass on important messages to the end user. Also of course I would need to find out where such pages are hosted and generate them!

All in all, it's not very satisfactory - fine for power users (of Privoxy) who'd know how to access the filesystem and would know what they need to tweak in order to be able to open up configuration and manage upgrades successfully, but I fear a torrent of "it doesn't work" or "I upgraded and I lost all my settings!!!" support requests from non-tech iPhone users :o(

Still interested in what everyone thinks around these issues,

Ian


On 2012-04-25, at 10:56 PM, Redback wrote:

> G'day Ian
> 
> There is an iExplorer which is a freeware for either windows or mac 
> http://www.macroplant.com/iexplorer/ which state what it can do. so the 
> second part of your concern is mitigated to an extent, but the first 
> part might be simple in that why not install the default setup and 
> advise user's of the policy that is in place. And have them backup there 
> user setting and etc through iexplorer, and then if the user wish they 
> can drop it in place over the default version after and upgrade if they 
> wish.
> 
> Cheers
> Andrew
> 
> On 26/04/12 4:50 AM, Ian Silvester wrote:
>> Okay, a little progress.
>> 
>> The iOS SDK is a free (as in beer) download; it is available via the same route as Xcode (the software required to obtain gcc for OS X). This means that there is no licensing obstruction to an iPhone Privoxy distro.
>> 
>> There remain a couple of challenges however:
>> 
>> 1. So far I've only talked to one software repository (hereafter 'repo'), and one limitation they impose is that the installer cannot run any post-installation script. This means that upgrades would overwrite config files. This is not ideal, but may turn out to be commonplace amongst other repos. Their opinion is that the software itself should write out default config files on instantiation, which is perhaps not unreasonable. I do not however expect to change Privoxy to do this, nor do I wish to fork to satisfy one platform! The simpler solution they've suggested is to split my installer into two packages (binary and config) and have the binary depend on the config; this way vanilla installs would bring in the vanilla config whereas upgrades would already find it installed; the problem with that solution is the opposite - upgrades that modify the config file structure would need to be installed explicitly and separately from the binary package, and would in any case still simply ov
> erwrite the user's config.
>> 
>> 2. The iPhone offers no file browser, there's not even one for jailbroken phones, and in my opinion even the 'average' jailbroken iPhone user is unlikely to be au fait with the shell prompt or SSH. On this basis, what do you all feel about the idea of distributing this version with browser-based action file editing enabled by default?
>> 
>> 
>> Your thoughts on the above are welcomed,
>> 
>> Ian
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On 2012-04-18, at 3:50 PM, Ian Silvester wrote:
>> 
>>> On 2012-04-18, at 3:13 PM, Fabian Keil wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Ian Silvester<[email protected]>  wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> Prompted by a query from one of the folks who help test the OS X distro
>>>>> of Privoxy I've been investigating the practicality of creating a
>>>>> distribution for the iOS platform. This OS  is derived from OS X and as
>>>>> such is BSD-like, so there don't appear to be any insurmountable
>>>>> challenges involved.
>>>>> 
>>>>> The reason I bring it up here is that we would not be able to host the
>>>>> distribution at Sourceforge.
>>>> 
>>>> Why wouldn't we be able to do this?
>>> 
>>> Simply because the average jailbreak user does not expect to have to copy a .deb to their phone and install it; the de facto method is via the Cydia package manager.
>>> 
>>>>>                            Indeed, we would not be able to submit it
>>>>> to Apple's App Store either, since the code contravenes many of their
>>>>> dictates. Instead the release would target only so-called 'jailbroken'
>>>>> iPhones (those that have had the built-in code-signing disabled), and
>>>>> would be distributed through Cydia (the 'jailbreak app store').
>>>> 
>>>> If that makes more sense from a user's perspective I see nothing
>>>> wrong with this.
>>>> 
>>>>> So far as toolchain goes its basically the same as for OS X. What I have
>>>>> yet to confirm is whether I'd require any libraries that are available
>>>>> only through the $99 iPhone Developer license; if so then, as I
>>>>> understand it, I'd no longer be in compliance with the GPL.
>>>> 
>>>> In case of binary distribution that's my interpretation as well.
>>>> If the proprietary libraries aren't shipped with the operating system
>>>> they aren't covered by §3's "special exception", how much they cost
>>>> doesn't matter.
>>> 
>>> Okay, so if this does turn out to be the case then the fallback position would be a 'source' distribution, wherein we supply the appropriate makefile etc. to allow users to build an installer for themselves. The point would be moot anyway since I don't have the Developer License and am not going to buy one just for this project!
>>> 
>>> I'll report back on my findings in due course,
>>> 
>>> Ian
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>>> That aside, does anyone have any objection if I were to go ahead with
>>>>> such a project and, when complete, check in the build module to the
>>>>> Sourceforge project?
>>>> 
>>>> No objections from me, assuming SourceForge's ToS allow it.
>>>> 
>>>>>                    To be clear we're breaking no laws in any of this -
>>>>> there are those that might argue that the iPhone owners do so when they
>>>>> jailbreak their phones, but even that is not the case in at least the
>>>>> United States, the one territory where to my knowledge it has been
>>>>> challenged in law.
>>>> 
>>>> Jailbreaking is considered legal in Germany as well, additionally
>>>> the legal responsibility isn't shared (here) anyway, but remains
>>>> with the individual developer/distributor.
>>>> 
>>>>> So, comments, thoughts anyone?
>>>> 
>>>> If you are interested in maintaining another package, go for it.
>>>> The more the merrier.
>>>> 
>>>> Fabian
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