Beginner Question: unMenu packages or 5b14 plugins?

[boy914]

First, thanks again to everyone for the fantastic help provided by this forum.

 

Yesterday I completed my first unRAID server build and so far everything is going very well. I made a last-minute decision to use 5b14 instead of 4.7 (due to better AFP/TimeMachine support), and now I find that some of my earlier research may not be valid. For example, I was planning on using the unMENU packages for sabnzb, sickbeard, etc, but now I see that version 5 provides a plugin system that appears to be the preferred customization approach for v5.

 

So, right now, I have 5b14 running with unMENU and the "screen" and "bwm-ng" packages installed and set to startup on reboot. Everything else is pretty much stock.

 

Questions:

 

1. In general, when a unMENU package and a plugin both exist to provide the same functionality (e.g. sickbeard), which should I use? I assume the plugins are more future-proof, but I don't know how much more mature the unMENU packages are.

2. I checked the Wiki and everywhere else I could think of, and I cannot find this: How do I install a plugin ? The closest I've found is an instruction to download the file to /config/plugins, but that directory doesn't exist on my flash. Can I just create it?

3. Do v5 plugins auto-update or provide some update interface other than uninstall/reinstall?

4. Is the "Simple Features" "plugin" a true v5 plugin developed under the new model, or is it something else? It looks pretty sweet either way, and I see plenty of people using it on v5.

 

Sorry for the newbie questions. Give me a week or two to get used to everything, and I know I'll be off to the races.

 

-Rick

[Joe L.]

First, thanks again to everyone for the fantastic help provided by this forum.

 

Yesterday I completed my first unRAID server build and so far everything is going very well. I made a last-minute decision to use 5b14 instead of 4.7 (due to better AFP/TimeMachine support), and now I find that some of my earlier research may not be valid. For example, I was planning on using the unMENU packages for sabnzb, sickbeard, etc, but now I see that version 5 provides a plugin system that appears to be the preferred customization approach for v5.

 

So, right now, I have 5b14 running with unMENU and the "screen" and "bwm-ng" packages installed and set to startup on reboot. Everything else is pretty much stock.

 

Questions:

 

1. In general, when a unMENU package and a plugin both exist to provide the same functionality (e.g. sickbeard), which should I use? I assume the plugins are more future-proof, but I don't know how much more mature the unMENU packages are.

2. I checked the Wiki and everywhere else I could think of, and I cannot find this: How do I install a plugin ? The closest I've found is an instruction to download the file to /config/plugins, but that directory doesn't exist on my flash. Can I just create it?

3. Do v5 plugins auto-update or provide some update interface other than uninstall/reinstall?

4. Is the "Simple Features" "plugin" a true v5 plugin developed under the new model, or is it something else? It looks pretty sweet either way, and I see plenty of people using it on v5.

 

Sorry for the newbie questions. Give me a week or two to get used to everything, and I know I'll be off to the races.

 

-Rick

The new plugin system in the 5.0 series of unRAId is very immature at this time in that it can install a .plg file if the .plg is downloaded and initially installed.   

At this time, it has NO ability to browse existing packages or enable/disable them on reboot unless the developer of that package added it in their scripting.

 

The unMENU .conf system of add-on packages is more mature having been around for a number of years through many versions of unRAID.  The disadvantage of it might be if it references older versions of some installed programs.  Its packages  are more likely to work on both older and newer versions of unRAID.

 

You get to choose.  Bleeding edge .plg packages where you need to manage them, or versions installed through unMENU.  in some cases, they are, in effect, identical.

 

The 5.0 .plg file format was based on what was learned in developing unMENU, it just uses .xml format rather than tokens at the beginnings of lines.  Other than that, they are very similar.

Both formats contain URLs to download files, a corresponding MD5 checksum, and installation scripts.  It is fairly straightforward to convert from one to the other, and many have begun that process.

 

I expect the .plg plugins will eventually have the same features as unMENU (and more) but for now they are separate, and as I said, mostly developed by different unRAID users.  Most are leveraging what was identified in creating the unMENU packages, so in many cases, the functionality is identical.

 

Once a comprehensive package manager is in place on unRAID 5.0, and unRAID 5.0 out of beta, I expect most new packages will be developed there.

 

Joe L.

[boy914]

Thanks Joe!

 

Based on your feedback, I'm going to stick with unMENU packages for the things that I need to work, and try using plugins for things I'm "playing" with.

 

-Rick