A new simplified package assembly format and a new installer may appear in ubuntu

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    Ubuntu finally thought about updating the format of working with the assembly of applications and their installation. The implementation of this project should simplify the fate of developers who want to add their products to ubuntu. First of all, the innovation should relate to OS versions for tablets / smartphones, but later it can be applied anywhere, up to non-ubuntu distros and not even Linux axes.

    Existing packages will not be changed and will continue to use dpkg and apt and will remain compatible with Debian and others.

    “Click packages” (original Click packages) are aimed at simplifying package assembly: without dependencies between applications, without assembly instructions (maintainer script) and each application will be installed in its own folder.

    The new package format requires a new installer; there is already a concept for a low-level application installer, completely written from scratch. The main features implemented at the moment:
    - no dependencies between packages are needed
    - one small dependency on the main installation system (click-base system)
    - installation of the application in a separate directory
    - full declarativeness, assembly instructions (maintainer script) are prohibited
    - accelerated installation time , for example, installing a package containing one small file, approximately 0.15 seconds (on a new x86 computer) and approximately 0.6 on Nexus 7. And this despite the fact that the prototype is implemented on Python, and later the installer will be transferred to C, it should be a little more speed up the installation.
    - there are no restrictions on installations only from the root, although similar restrictions can be implemented somewhere else to make sure that applications will not be able to edit their own code while they are working
    - packages are created using the python collector by simply specifying the directory tree and manifest.json file
    - assembling packages requires only a standard python library, so it is made to simplify the assembly to not ubuntushnyh distro and linkusovyh axes
    - binary format quite similar to the existing ones in order to has been added on Derzhko high-level tools minimalnmi efforts of

    developers, as an option, consider the use of existing similar solutions, such as Listaller and 0install. But Listaller requires dependencies, and 0installer turned out to be quite difficult to integrate into the system. Therefore, it was decided to implement this project from scratch.
    More information on the UDML Newsletter

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