This is the documentation of an old opsi version. The documentation for the current version 4.3 can be found here.

Introduction

The open source program opsi-script (former at windows 'opsi-winst') serves in the context of opsi – open pc server integration (cf. www.opsi.org) – as the central function for initiating and performing the automatic software installation. It may also be used stand alone as a tool for setup programs for any piece of software.

opsi-script is basically an interpreter for a specific, rather simple script language which can be used to express all relevant elements of a software installation.

A software installation that is described by a opsi-script script and performed by executing the script has several advantages compared with installations that are managed by a group of shell commands (e. g. copy etc.):

  • opsi-script can log very thoroughly all operations of the installation process. The support team can check the log files, and then easily detect when errors occurred or other problematic circumstances unfold.

  • Copy actions can be configured with a great variety of options if existing files should be overwritten

  • Especially, it may be configured to copy files depending on their internal version.

  • There are different modes to write to the Windows registry:

    • overwrite existing values

    • write only when no value exists

    • append a value to an existing value.

  • The Windows registry can be patched for all users which exist on a work station (including the default user, which is used as prototype for further users).

  • There is a sophisticated syntax for an integrated patching of XML configuration files.