Making packages

1. I need to express something that's awkward in HOCON

Write the config in any language you like and then use a hashbang include. For example, grab yaml2json or jsonnet and then just put something like this in your conveyor.conf:

include "#!jsonnet conveyor.jsonnet"

Conveyor will run jsonnet conveyor.jsonnet and treat the output as if it was an included file. Because HOCON is a superset of JSON, anything that produces JSON can be used in this way.

2. Can I define URL handlers or file associations?

You can register a URL handler by just setting the app.url-schemes key, and file associations by just setting the app.file-associations key; see the operating system integration section for details.

3. How do I do a new version for every commit?

Something like:

app {
    // Get the number of commits in the current branch.
    include "#!=revision git rev-list --count --first-parent HEAD"
}

and then just trigger Conveyor from your CI system. This is an example of a hashbang include.

Revision numbers vs commit hashes

Note that revision must be a number. You can't set it to be a commit hash. This is because package managers don't generally allow non-integer versions, and for Windows and macOS this is a hard rule.

4. How do I display a license agreement at install time?

That's not supported. User interactivity during installation is un-idiomatic on macOS, extremely discouraged on Linux and causes problems for network admins on Windows. Ask the user to agree in your app on first run instead.

5. How do I forcibly update my app whilst it's running?

Please see here.