I think that one of the big downsides to PERL-based BBS solutions is that it's somewhat complicated to install. It involves a lot of CHMOD'ing to a lot of files in a few different folders, and many times, I simply can't get the board installed. With a PHP/MySQL board, there is usually minimal CHMOD'ing required, and you typically just run a simple install.php script.

Is it possible at all with PERL to do something like this? Where after uploading the files, you can run just one file, which would automate the rest of the installation file?

By default E-Blah Setup TRIES to do this.

Actually, E-Blah does this very well.  Of course you will always have to chmod the actual setup script to 755 for it to run on most servers.

The big problem is when servers don't like scripts actually chmod'ing files and folders.  When this is the case, the script dies while trying to install.

Justin, is there a way to check to see if a file or folder is actually chmoded?  I ask this because it would be cool feature if the setup script told a user that something is wrong...if that makes sense

Yeah ... more work.

So not to leave you hanging.  My thoughts were that the script would run through the whole chmod process, and then check them and list them on the screen.  If something was wrong, it would tell them to do it manually, then they would click the check again button, and it would show that it was ok.

For example:

Prefs is currently chmod'd to 644.
Manually chmod it to 777 to proceed

Of course the second time it would just check the setting, not try to change it

The reason I bring this up, is because it would make the install docs that much easier to understand (not to mention shorter), and everyone in the world would know how to install E-Blah.

Don't you love it when we make your job easier

Of course, always remember to donate.

hmmm...haven't done that in awhile  Unless you count time