ReaPack: Package Manager for REAPER (developer thread)

[mschnell]

GitHib features an "issue" system for all files provided. I think the author and others get emails, if somebody files an issue on any of his contribution.
Would it not be a nice idea to integrate some reporting feature in ReaPack that provides (to non-tech) users of the packages, means to file or update appropriate issues and hope for reactions from the authors ?

[inthevoid]

Originally Posted by mschnell

GitHib features an "issue" system for all files provided. I think the author and others get emails, if somebody files an issue on any of his contribution.
Would it not be a nice idea to integrate some reporting feature in ReaPack that provides (to non-tech) users of the packages, means to file or update appropriate issues and hope for reactions from the authors ?

Github's issue system is pretty straightforward to use, no? You just need to make a Github account, go to the repository in question and hit 'New Issue'

[mawi]

Hello, I am trying to generate an index.xml for my 2 JSFX. Both effects are recognized and indexed, but the other folders and files from the repository that are necessary for the effects are missing. Why are these not recognized? Do I have to add them manually? In Reapack Browser these effects are displayed and can be installed but in reaper they are not recognized. Do I have to make my repository public or can I test it in private mode in reapack?

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[cfillion]

Originally Posted by mawi

Hello, I am trying to generate an index.xml for my 2 JSFX. Both effects are recognized and indexed, but the other folders and files from the repository that are necessary for the effects are missing. Why are these not recognized? Do I have to add them manually?

Yes, if a package needs to install more than one file the additional files must be listed using the 'provides' tag.

https://github.com/cfillion/reapack-...ation#provides

Originally Posted by mawi

Do I have to make my repository public or can I test it in private mode in reapack?

The only requirement is for ReaPack to be allowed access to the XML index and the download URLs listed inside from the user's computer.

[mawi]

Ok, thank you!

[mschnell]

Originally Posted by inthevoid

Github's issue system is pretty straightforward to use, no? You just need to make a Github account, go to the repository in question and hit 'New Issue'

I did not suggest this for me to use, but for those, who are not familiar with GitHub and software development.

[raquelgc]

Originally Posted by raquelgc

Hi there! I made my first Reascript pull requests two weeks ago (as ilovemedia), and I'm curious about how long they usually take to be reviewed. Thanks!

Hi again! I tossed in a pull request on July 7th (#1208). Any chance someone could give me the lowdown on its status? Just curious if there are any hiccups. I'm eager to share this once it's available via ReaPack.

Live example in action and more info here:
https://ilovemedia.es/arranged-live-looping-for-reaper/

Release Arranged Live Looping v1.0
#1208 opened on Jul 7 by ilovemedia

Thanks!

[cfillion]

Oops, my bad. Everything looks good so I've merged it.

[raquelgc]

Originally Posted by cfillion

Oops, my bad. Everything looks good so I've merged it.

Thanks a lot!

[mawi]

I created a new JSFX version and renamed the file because it had a space. Then I created a new index.xml, now ReaPack does not recognize the previous versions of the JSFX. Is there a solution to this?

[mawi]

This has been solved. Found a solution.

[inthevoid]

Hi all - getting this error message when trying to synchronise ReaPack:

"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/juanriccio/Reaperism/master/index.xml:
A libcurl function was given a bad argument (43):"

Getting this same error message for every repository that I've imported.

Any ideas? Thanks!

[cfillion]

Originally Posted by mawi

I created a new JSFX version and renamed the file because it had a space. Then I created a new index.xml, now ReaPack does not recognize the previous versions of the JSFX. Is there a solution to this?

Renaming is the same as deleting a package (becomes obsolete and existing users get a prompt to uninstall) + creating a new one.

Originally Posted by inthevoid

Hi all - getting this error message when trying to synchronise ReaPack:

"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/juanriccio/Reaperism/master/index.xml:
A libcurl function was given a bad argument (43):"

Getting this same error message for every repository that I've imported.

Any ideas? Thanks!

Which version of macOS or Linux distribution?

[inthevoid]

Originally Posted by cfillion

Which version of macOS or Linux distribution?

Hi cfillion - this is on MacOS Ventura 13.4.1

[mawi]

Renaming is the same as deleting a package (becomes obsolete and existing users get a prompt to uninstall) + creating a new one.

Good, I see. Too bad there is no way to keep the version history when I rename an existing JSFX.

I have another question about managing packages in ReaPack. Among other things, there is the category and type column. If I have a JSFX the type is automatically set to effect, right? The category is automatically the subfolder where the JSFX is, right? In my case the subfolder is named after the JSFX (EQ-A4K and EQ-P3B) and contains all the files for the JSFX, like images, PDF and the JSFX file itself. If I want to set as category for both effects e.g. Filter, EQ or Compressor etc., then I have to put both effects with its files in one folder and name the folder after the category, right? Then two packages are shown with a category like Filter or Dynamics etc, right? A package is also not the JSFX filename but the name I wrote in the file under the desc: tag, right? I can search packages only by the desc: tag, authors or categories, right? Are there any other possibilities? Sorry for all the questions. I am new to this and trying to understand this correctly.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[helgoboss]

Hi cfillion,

Would you consider a PR that makes the ReaPack shared library loadable from outside of REAPER, exposing its "add repository" and "install package" functions?

I would like to download ReaPack from a custom installer application (also GPL3) and use those exposed functions to install packages via ReaPack even before booting up REAPER. See "Background" section for more information. I have not implemented these changes yet because it would be wasted effort if you don't approve.

Background:

I love ReaPack. I have beeing relying on it for a long time as the primary way to distribute my REAPER extension ReaLearn and let users keep it up-to-date. And it works flawlessly for that purpose! I like how you can use one unified mechanism to handle install and update of all REAPER add-ons.

In a not too distant future, I will release another REAPER extension called Playtime 2. Initially, my idea was to also distribute it via ReaPack. But Playtime 2 is different: It's a commercial product. For commercial products, convenience is very important. I want to make it as easy as possible for users to install Playtime from scratch (even for new users who don't have REAPER yet).

By "easy" I mean this:

1. Download the correct Playtime installer and execute it
2. Everything works

With the normal ReaPack way, it's like this:

1. Download the correct REAPER installer and execute it (if REAPER not installed yet)
2. Download and unpack the correct ReaPack archive
3. Copy ReaPack shared library to the correct place
4. Start REAPER
5. Add Helgoboss repository to ReaPack
6. Look for package "Playtime" in ReaPack
7. Mark the package for install and install it
8. Restart REAPER
9. Everything works

Even if you have REAPER installed already (no step 1), this is quite a journey! If I would be a new user, I would probably give up half-way and move on to other products. The most annoying parts here are step 2, 3, 5 and 8.

How great it would be if ReaPack or something similar would be built into REAPER itself! That would reduce it to:

1. Download the correct REAPER installer and execute it (if REAPER not installed yet)
5. Add Helgoboss repository to ReaPack
6. Look for package "Playtime" in ReaPack
7. Mark the package for install and install it
8. Restart REAPER
9. Everything works

Better! With a little new feature (to install something simply by pasting an URL), this could be even more reduced:

1. Download the correct REAPER installer and execute it (if REAPER not installed yet)
6. Paste Playtime URL and press Enter
8. Restart REAPER
9. Everything works

Which would be absolutely acceptable. But I got carried away. The problem is, we will not get this, at least not short-term. I wrote to Justin the other day and he confirmed that nothing like that is planned for the immediate future.

Therefore, my next idea was to ditch ReaPack altogether and write an installer that takes care of installing and updating (including downloading REAPER if not already installed). But the downside of this is that ReaPack users then have 2 places where they get the latest updates, pin versions, etc. => ReaPack and Playtime Installer. Acceptable, but not nice.

Today a new idea came to my mind: What if both approaches (installer & ReaPack) could be combined? The installer would do this (basically at the press of a button):

1. Download REAPER installer if necessary and execute it
2. Download the correct ReaPack shared library and copy it to the correct place
3. Load the ReaPack shared library
4. Use an exported function from the ReaPack library to add Helgoboss repository to ReaPack
5. Use another exported function from the ReaPack library to install Playtime

From a user perspective, it would look very easy:

1. Download the correct Playtime installer and execute it
2. Everything works + user can enjoy ReaPack update mechanism

Thinking even further, this installer could be made as a generic installer, not just for Playtime. It could be written in a way so that it reads some kind of configuration and uses it to add arbitrary repositories to ReaPack and install arbitrary packages.


Looking forward to your response.

[cfillion]

Originally Posted by helgoboss

Would you consider a PR that makes the ReaPack shared library loadable from outside of REAPER, exposing its "add repository" and "install package" functions?

That's a very interesting idea I had not thought of before. I was thinking of eventually doing a proper API for managing packages, but that was only within REAPER.

In a hackish way, this can already be done while ReaPack is not running:

• Add the repository to reapack.ini
• Insert an installation entry in registry.db to mark the package as installed
• Next time synchronizing is performed, it will get installed for real (missing file reparation or because version is older than latest)

Of course that's dependent on the internals (although they're stable for the time being). A C API would be more robust and could be done like this:

UseRootPath raii { "/path/to/reaper/resources" };
Config config { Path::CONFIG.prependRoot() };
config.remotes.add(...);
config.write();

Index    idx { "Repository Name" };
Category cat { "Category Name", &idx };
Package  pkg { Package::ExtensionType, "Package ID", &cat };
Version  ver { "0.0.1", &pkg };

try {
  UseRootPath raii { "/path/to/reaper/resources" };
  Registry reg { Path::REGISTRY.prependRoot() };
  reg.push(&ver);
  reg.commit();
}
catch(const reapack_error &) {
  // ...
}

The main difficulty doing that outside of REAPER would be Config's dependency on SWELL functions for .ini handling. Your installer would have to provide those.

To perform the actual installation outside of REAPER, then there's another dependency on reaper_plugin("timer") for cross-thread events. (The Transaction instance should be created directly rather than using the higher-level functions in the ReaPack class since those are coupled with the GUI.)

If there are scripts to be installed, then there's also AddRemoveReaScript (registring them in the action list is skipped if that function is null for compatibility with older REAPER).

[Hypex]

Originally Posted by helgoboss

In a not too distant future, I will release another REAPER extension called Playtime 2. Initially, my idea was to also distribute it via ReaPack. But Playtime 2 is different: It's a commercial product. For commercial products, convenience is very important. I want to make it as easy as possible for users to install Playtime from scratch (even for new users who don't have REAPER yet).

Hello. You had a few subjects in your post. So I chose this to lead off on. I quite agree. ReaPack is very useful to the point it should be included as standard. Which brings up the subject of the average Reaper install. I would say the average user and not even a super user would do this:


1. Download and install Reaper.
2. Download and install SWS.
3. Download and install ReaPack.
4. Download and install ImGui.
5. Download and install anything else I missed?





The Reaper ecosystem has grown. And though these extensions are third party the average user would install them as well. Because they are not included and must be installed separately complicates it further. Any one new would obviously ask why they have to go over the place to install this if it's needed. Or otherwise ask why Reaper cannot function stand alone.


This further complicated by Reaper updates. I don't recall exactly how it is on Windows (I mostly use it on Linux) but when a new Reaper version arrives you tend to get told about it when opening Reaper. And if you want to download it. From there it opens up the website. This is not an automatic process where most software can quit it self, download and install an update, then reload.


It would be good from the onset if the Reaper installer included some options for third party extensions such as SWS and ReaPack. And allowed you to optionally install them with the usual license agreements. It could then go off and download the extension and install as well. ReaPack already has a ton of included packages. So adding an extra repository could be another story. Or perhaps register these with ReaPack as optional packages that could be activated. This would avoid seeking out and adding XML files if ReaPack knew what extra repositories there were.


ReaPack itself doesn't come in a package. But a binary missing a readme. So you really need to install it by hand despite the name. ;-)


I think a few of these could be mitigated if there was some filetype association on the desktop. There is for "RPP" project files. So if other associations could be created so they open up in Reaper, such as "RPR" for Reaper resource, Reaper could pick up on it and deal with it directly. Of course Reaper may need to rename it in place but it would be easier to open it up than figure out how to install it.

[helgoboss]

Originally Posted by cfillion

A C API would be more robust and could be done like this:

Thanks a lot for the detailed reply with code examples, much appreciated! I will do some experiments then.

[helgoboss]

Originally Posted by Hypex

I think a few of these could be mitigated if there was some filetype association on the desktop. There is for "RPP" project files. So if other associations could be created so they open up in Reaper, such as "RPR" for Reaper resource, Reaper could pick up on it and deal with it directly. Of course Reaper may need to rename it in place but it would be easier to open it up than figure out how to install it.

I can imagine that the question of what belongs into an average REAPER installation is a very subjective one. It depends on what you need. In my opinion, the only really essential thing apart from REAPER itself is ReaPack, because it's the door to everything else.

A custom file type that describes a particular REAPER setup along with a file association ... this is a very interesting idea in this regard. You download it, you start it and something takes care of installing all of it. Perhaps the content of such a file could just be a list of ReaPack repositories and packages. Using ReaPack for this would ensure that it's not just a one-shot installation but also an updatable one.

I don't think that Cockos will add something like this in the near future. But I suppose it would be possible to associate such a file type with the proposed installer application. I imagine it to be a "persistent" installer application, one that will show up as an application, just like for example Native Access or XLN Online Installer.

I will do some installer experiments within the next months because I have to do that anyway for distributing Playtime. Let's see, maybe I can push that thing towards something more generic.

[Hypex]

Originally Posted by helgoboss

I can imagine that the question of what belongs into an average REAPER installation is a very subjective one. It depends on what you need. In my opinion, the only really essential thing apart from REAPER itself is ReaPack, because it's the door to everything else.

True, yes, in the modern age. However, there was something I found for my last step. But only in the case of exploring. Download and install anything useful on the stash.


I would use it for very basic use compared to musicians making full use of it. I just use it for mixing stuff and doing remixes. So I don't have any MIDI equipment plugged into it and just work with samples. I did use MIDI for a drum VST once but that was still internal. And in my case I soon had SWS installed. Some useful scripts. Now ReaPack. And eventually ImGui since a lot is using it now.

A custom file type that describes a particular REAPER setup along with a file association ... this is a very interesting idea in this regard. You download it, you start it and something takes care of installing all of it. Perhaps the content of such a file could just be a list of ReaPack repositories and packages. Using ReaPack for this would ensure that it's not just a one-shot installation but also an updatable one.

It could be anything really. So the RPR project files are text. In some kind of XML. This is the most basic way of automating files I have found on the desktop. There are other files like keymaps, menus and themes that can be imported. When I checked none had an association but I haven't checked on Windows yet. And the themes literally have Zip on the end but it's not as an extension so may be unclear to identify.


Perhaps some kind of generic import format could be created. All zipped up. With text files describing it and any binaries included which it can then import in and restart if needed.

I don't think that Cockos will add something like this in the near future. But I suppose it would be possible to associate such a file type with the proposed installer application. I imagine it to be a "persistent" installer application, one that will show up as an application, just like for example Native Access or XLN Online Installer.

Projects are already supported so extending it makes sense to me. And Reaper has lots of extra assets that can be imported. But the problem is they all need to be installed by hand. One example is a toolbar. You can export it but it's tied to the toolbar it came from. What if you want to share it? Well, the tool bar can't be static, or it would possibly trample on an existing toolbar in use. So having Reaper know what it is and import it in would be good.


Or, an option in Reaper to import assets would be good. It can recognise sound and video. So recognising it's own assets makes sense to me.

I will do some installer experiments within the next months because I have to do that anyway for distributing Playtime. Let's see, maybe I can push that thing towards something more generic.

Cool.

[Rockum]

Hi cfillion, I am trying to set up Reaper in a classroom lab setting.

Students will not have admin rights to install any software. That means that although they can place ReaPack and SWS into the proper directory, it still won't run. I would like to install all the resources on my machine and have IT duplicate the directory contents in each machine's root Library/Application Support/ directory. Then all students would have a shared set of tools which can be pre-authorized by the system admin. SWS seems to work OK in that directory on my personal Mac, but ReaPack is alerting me that it will not function outside of the user's Reaper resource directory.

Would it be possible to add ReaPack support for the //Library/Application Support/REAPER directory? If not is there any workaround?

Do you anticipate that most other scripts and extensions will run correctly from that directory or impossible to say?

[Rockum]

OK, after a bit more looking into things, I have another question. Any idea why MacOS prompts the user for additional permission before it will run SWS and ReaPack but allows most extensions like IMGui to simply run with no additional authorization?

Thanks

[cfillion]

Originally Posted by Rockum

ReaPack is alerting me that it will not function outside of the user's Reaper resource directory.

Would it be possible to add ReaPack support for the //Library/Application Support/REAPER directory? If not is there any workaround?

That is because ReaPack expects every file it manages (including itself) to be at a deterministic location and be able to self-update. So it cannot be installed into a system-wide folder that the user cannot write into.

Originally Posted by Rockum

OK, after a bit more looking into things, I have another question. Any idea why MacOS prompts the user for additional permission before it will run SWS and ReaPack but allows most extensions like IMGui to simply run with no additional authorization?

Common browsers set a quarantine flag to each downloaded files. That makes macOS block them from running. ReaPack doesn't set such a troublesome flag when it downloads extensions or FX plugins.

The easiest solution would be to remove the quarantine attribute from the downloaded ReaPack and SWS then let users install them in their resource folder as usual.

# make macOS forget that the file came from internet
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /path/to/reaper_reapack*.dylib

[Rockum]

Originally Posted by cfillion

The easiest solution would be to remove the quarantine attribute from the downloaded ReaPack and SWS then let users install them in their resource folder as usual.

# make macOS forget that the file came from internet
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /path/to/reaper_reapack*.dylib

Thank you cfillion.

Sometimes it feels like I am having to fight the IT department (and Apple) at every turn. The district blocked Reaper on student computers after I set everything up. The Apple guy with the district has been really good at trying to help us get started, and installed Reaper on the machines, but it's still a challenge. On the work computers students have no terminal access. I am not sure if I do or not. I think I do on my machine but doubt I do on theirs.

Is there a way that I could move the reapack.dylib to the computer with a thumb drive in order to keep it from getting tagged in the first place? The lab computers are locked down pretty tightly, but if I understand correctly, I could then use ReaPack to install SWS and the other needed extensions, scripts, etc. and I think the rest would fall into place. Of course I would need to place the SWS extension in a private repository where ReaPack could get access.

[cfillion]

Originally Posted by Rockum

Is there a way that I could move the reapack.dylib to the computer with a thumb drive in order to keep it from getting tagged in the first place?

Yeah. Although if these computers are that locked down, installing a piece of software meant to freely download random pieces of other software from internet (aka ReaPack's entire purpose) might be frowned upon by the IT people.

[Rockum]

Originally Posted by cfillion

Yeah. Although if these computers are that locked down, installing a piece of software meant to freely download random pieces of other software from internet (aka ReaPack's entire purpose) might be frowned upon by the IT people.

Thank you. That worked. Of course I know my intentions are good, and frankly the bar required to investigate ReaPack, learn enough programming to create a snippet of malicious code, and set up a repository link is really high for students at their level. It's also one student per computer too, so anything fishy would lead directly back to them. IT is being really helpful, but it's nice I was able to solve this one with your help.

I am wondering if it will work with VST and components as well. I've explained to IT that most seem to work when installed in the USER's own space.

Thanks again!

[SNJUK2]

Hi. Need some help. I was try add jsfx to Reapack,but there is no in Reapack
I new with github and maybi I make something wrong
I was add repository to Reateam https://github.com/snjuk22/JSFX.git
and add jsfx over package editor What can i do next? How can i update jsfx over repository? Thanks

[cfillion]

Originally Posted by SNJUK2

What can i do next?

Nothing, it's all good on your end. I've merged the pull request.