I have a Linux web application which installs a webserver, a database, digital certificates etc using a set of .sh scripts.
In order to simplify user interaction during installation such as entering passwords, certificate details and such, I want to create a GUI installer. After much deliberation, following are some decisions and related questions
- The target systems may or may not have a Desktop or a monitor installed. So providing a web interface to the install process may be the way to go. User would copy the application to the target machine, start the webservice which would then expose a web interface to continue the install. Would Python be a good choice for this?
- Since this is an installer itself, the requirements to run it must be practically nil. This requires
- Use python's built in
SimpleHTTPServer. This will be used the one time during installation and then be killed. Any caveats to using the default python web server? - Compile app into standalone binary using one of the Freezing utilities. We don't want to depend on the user having python on their system and have been asked to account for admins who've removed python due to whatever reason. Is this precaution necessary?
- Use python's built in
Any comments on the general approach or alternative options will be greatly appreciated.