From c8ebdfac8f3d91830c2754bc2f17cea75ce6e1b8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alessandro Mauri <alemauri001@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2020 21:11:46 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] initiated commitment

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+# tarinstall
+An alternative to AppImages, flatpacks and snaps to let the user install an
+application as a single executable file when static linking is not possible
+
+tarinstall does not include any external files as such it does not include
+any man pages, example configuration files, etc. All of those have to be
+installed separately.
+
+## Graph
+An application packaged as a tarinstall is made as such
+
+```
+----- Decompressor -----
+|                      |
+|                      |
+|------- Loader -------|
+|                      |
+|                      |
+|----- App Tarball ----|
+|                      |
+| app/                 |
+| lib/                 |
+| start                |
+| env                  |
+|                      |
+------------------------
+```
+
+Decompressor: It decompresses the archive and then runs the loader
+
+Loader: It reads the `env` file in the tarball and enumerates the `lib/` 
+directory to loads all the necessary libraries and sets the correct environment
+before executing the `start` script in the `app/` directory
+
+## TODO
+- Find a way to include external files
+- Include a package manager
+	- App binary diffs for incremental upgrades
+- Automated tarinstall packaging for developers
+	- Package manager for shared objects (libraries)
+	- Standardized way to define dependencies
+
+## Experimental optional components in App Tarball
+`ext/` directory: it includes all of the external files that have to be installed
+upon running the application for the first time
+
+`deps` file: lists all the required dependencies and their version to allow for
+an empty `lib/` directory at first start, all the dependencies can be downloaded
+upon running the application for the first time. It can also be used when
+packaging the tarinstall to automatically download the dependencies.
+
+## Advantages
+- Allows for application compression
+- Simpler and configyred in plaintext
+- Does not include any external dependencies other than optional ones
+- It can be used alongside other package managers and package formats