This is the documentation of an pre-release 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 logfiles, 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.