[izpack-devel] Problem specifying path

[Elmar Grom]

OK, here is a problem that stops me form running the compiler of the 3.8
version of IzPack in Ant.

IzPack seems to be unwilling to accept an absolute path for the spec file
(input="..."). My original Ant code that works with the older version does
not function any more with 3.8, so something must have changed there at some
point in time.

Using the following absolute path

C:/DocumentsAndSettings/Elmar/MyDocuments/Installers/Teacher/Definition/Teac
her.xml

generates the following error:

com.izforge.izpack.compiler.CompilerException:
C:/DocumentsAndSettings/Elmar/MyDocuments/Installers/Teacher/Definition/Teac
her.xml:8: <url> requires valid URL

So I conclude that IzPack is now expecting a URL rather than a file path.
Can anyone confirm that this is correct?

Changing the path in such a way that it should be recognized as a URL makes
this error go away. However, now IzPack screws the path completely up and as
a result does not find the file. The URL looks like this:

file://C:/DocumentsAndSettings/Elmar/MyDocuments/Installers/Teacher/Definiti
on/Teacher.xml

in other words I just add the protocol prefix for file. IzPack produces the
following:

file:C:/DocumentsAndSettings/Elmar/MyDocuments/Java/project/School.xml:381:
com.izforge.izpack.compiler.CompilerException: Invalid file:
C:\DocumentsAndSettings\Elmar\MyDocuments\Java\project\file:\C:\DocumentsAnd
Settings\Elmar\MyDocuments\Installers\Teacher\Definition\Teacher.xml

In other words it inserts the path of the directory where my Ant file is
located. Why it should do this is beyond me. Somehow it is not recognized as
the absolute path that it is.

Is this behavior as designed or does it represent a bug? In either case, is
there a workaround or proper way of specifying an absolute path?

	Elmar

-----Original Message-----
From: Elmar Grom [mailto:elmar at grom.net]
Sent: Monday, June 19, 2006 10:10 AM
To: izpack-devel at berlios.de
Subject: RE: [izpack-devel] Running IzPack with VM 1.5 without SigSegV


Hi folks,

it's strange to hear all this stuff with Problems about 1.5. Somehow I can't
relate to that. Neither do I have any Problems on my machines (Windows 2000
and XP) nor do my customers report any.

So I start wondering if it might be something else. One thing that is
different in my case is that I use quite an old version of IzPack. So
perhaps the causes are not with the shell link. As far as I know this has
not changed since it was first implemented.

It sounds awfully tedious but it might be worthwhile to start going back in
time in an effort to identify the first version of IzPack that does exhibit
the problems you observe. That might give us a narrower view on the things
that may cause the problem.

One problem I do have is that I never could get newer versions of IzPack to
run in my environment. That is why I still stick with the old one (Julien
might remember a conversation on this topic quite a while ago). Right now I
am at a point where I have to give my build environment a work-over to build
a parallel version of my application. Therefore this might be a good
opportunity for me to invest a day or two in order to get this working. At
the same time, there might be an opportunity for IzPack in general to
benefit....

	Elmar