The current installer is hindering installations, bugfixing and packaging of koha. We're not sure, but it might be making Windows installations trickier than they need to be, too. It has grown organically since some time around version 1.2/1.3 and now we're heading for 3.0. Jared and MJR want to replace it with something more common which will be easier to connect with packaging systems.

There was a meeting about the installer, see http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=7675718&forum_id=2545

See also: http://www.nabble.com/Re%3A--Koha--Koha-ZOOM-install-tf2767616.html

Work done so far:

1. Read man Ext'UtilsMake'Maker and identified NAME, DISTNAME, VERSION, PREREQS_PM, CONFIGURE, PM and PL_FILES as useful items and prompt as a useful procedure.
2. Makefile.PL added to koha CVS, Makefile, C4/Makefile.PL and C4/MANIFEST removed (possibly a past attempt?).

Possible steps forwards:

1. Use a generated MANIFEST along with misc/buildrelease and misc/Install.pm to determine which files go where, then complete Makefile.PL
2. Write a CONFIGURE block to do the version and location detections from Install.pm (can be overridden for batch mode)
3. Add PL files in misc/ to generate the files created by Install.pm at the moment.
4. Update or remove the tests in the t/ directory.
5. Replace template files with a PL file in the koha-tmpl directory using the po files?
6. Replace update/updatedatabase with a PL file which works from the last-used koha version?
7. Move basic docs (INSTALL, README) to top level

Please discuss major changes to the plan on koha-devel.