Installer-SH

Ease of use: Installing programs using Installer-SH does not require root privileges by default. Root privileges may be required when installing software in system mode for all users.

Easy management: Installed applications can be easily removed at any time thanks to the independence of the installation package.

Reliability and autonomy: The installation package is designed for autonomous installation of applications, which means it is suitable for use on computers without Internet access.

Backward compatibility: Installer-SH works starting with Debian 7 (Linux Kernel 3.2+), the installation package mainly uses GNU tools (https://www.gnu.org/software/software.html) and the 7-Zip archiver (https://7-zip.org, built into the package). Attention! Compatibility of programs packed in the Installer-SH format is on the conscience of the developer.

FreeBSD support: Starting with Installer-SH 2.6, FreeBSD support has been added.

Different versions: The installation package was developed with the expectation of installing a variety of user applications, including different versions of the same program.

Easily updated and flexible: The installation package is designed to distribute one specific version of the application, but it is possible to pack several different programs, or different versions of the same program, at the discretion of the packer. Multiple installations of the program are possible, a warning will be displayed about overwriting existing files, this allows the developer to create one package in the Installer-SH format under a unique name, and simply update the archive with the application files.

Standardized: The installation package follows the PortSoft specifications (https://github.com/Shedou/PortSoft) for applications, and the XDG Desktop specifications (https://specifications.freedesktop.org) for menu shortcut placement. Additionally, Installer-SH itself can prepare the PortSoft directory according to the specification on Linux distributions that do not support these specifications out of the box.

Excellent compression: Thanks to the 7-Zip archiver, the advantage of Installer-SH over AppImage can reach 80% or more, depending on the type of compressed data, size and parameters, and the advantage over tar.xz can reach 10% or more, depending on the compressed data, size and parameters. Alternatively, you can use the less efficient but more compatible tar.xz compression when creating the installation package.

Silent mode (v2.3+): It is possible to mass install several programs in Installer-SH format with the "-silent" parameter, for more information read the help, run "installer.sh" with the "-h" parameter to call the help.