gandag / fomod-docs

Documentation for the fomod installer format.

fomod Documentation

A game-agnostic mod installer format.

You can find the full documentation for this format at fomod-docs.rtfd.io.

For simple issues use the issue tracker at Github.

There are a number of associated repositories that might be worth checking out:

• fomod-schema, which maintains and develops the schema that governs this format.
• fomod-validator, a very simple app that validates and checks installers for mistakes.
• fomod-designer, an app that lets you build your installer in a simpler way with a graphical interface.
• pyfomod, for developers, a python package that forms the backbone of all apps listed here.

Contributing

If you're not familiar with the terms used, we have a glossary at the end for you! Try hovering over the unknown words, that might help too.

• Using git is no longer necessary since Github allows commiting directly with the web interface. Github has a pretty good guide on using their web interface.

• Before submitting a pull request make sure to submit a ticket in the issue tracker and reference this ticket in the PR, so it can be discussed. Typos and other small changes are exempted.

• Any pull requests have to pass the tests run on travis (see badge above). These tests consist on passing any examples through an xml linter.

• Pull requests without a proper description will not be accepted.

Building the documentation

The documentation is automatically built and uploaded to ReadTheDocs whenever it's pushed to this repo, however it may be useful to build locally to find typos and other errors before pushing.

These instructions are for Linux only, I don't have a Windows machine available to test building and I never even came physically close to a Mac.

Setup

Follow the instructions on setting up a virtualenv from here and then:

sudo apt install -y make
make setup

Build

make

Cleanup

make clean

Glossary

Git

Git is a version control system. You can learn more about them and git here.

Commit

Committing modifications to files creates a snapshot of your project. This is incredibly useful if you ever need to revert changes, to look at who made some changes or to allow multiple people to work on something at the same time. Like we're doing!

Pull Request

Pull requests allow you to ask for a set of changes to another repository. You can learn more about them here.

Issues, Tickets and Issue Tracker

The issue tracker is the place where you can open a ticket aka issue. Use these to leave feedback and suggestions! You can learn more about them here.

Linting

Linting documents is simply checking for errors. In our case, we check for compliance with a specific set of rules to enforce (the schemas). You can learn more about it here.

fomod-docs's Issues

Dependency filename/paths?

Hi,
In your documentation it's not absolutely clear that the fomod installer will check for a file that is installed in the \data folder or in subfolders as well (if the path is supplied one assumes).
You refer to the dest folder but that is a little ambiguous.
I have read other tutorials that claim a dependecny can check for the existence of textures. meshes etc. but I have been unable to get this to work for me, I can get a dependency to work on an esp file but not for anything in a subfolder of \data.

Are you able to enlighten me one way or the other?

diziet

Structuring the mod before writing the FOMOD

First, thanks for writing this. I've been looking for a solid set of documentation for FOMOD for a while.

I'd like to help out by contributing language (or a section) on how to structure the mod before writing the FOMOD XML since it kills three birds with one stone:

• It is an incredibly simple concept and makes logically following the structure, therefore writing the XML, dramatically easier
• It makes the mod universally compatible with all mod managers and installation methods.
• we won't end up with thousands of mods that cannot be installed anymore like what happened with the OMOD fiasco that engendered the BAIN structure standard in the first place. Things are starting to get eerily similar to how they were in 2008 with all of the "folder salad" mods being released lately.

I'm in the process of writing a BAIN reference for the Wrye Bash project so I already have most of it written, I'd just have to adjust the language a bit to fit the audience.

A question regarding file/folder priority

Hi GandaG,

Not sure if this is the right place to do this. I just have a simple question about the fomod specification, regarding file/folder priority.

If two folders containing different files have the same destination, would the result be merged or would the winning folder completely override the existence of the losing folder? Likewise, if a folder wins in priority over a file with destination path underneath that folder but does not actually present a file conflict, would the file end up getting installed or omitted?

Thanks in advance for any answers!
leontristain