A portable install mean you install Skychart on a removable media (USB stick) and you can plug it to any PC to run the application without any further configuration.
This require a version more recent than 3.7-2196 to properly handle any change in the media mount point on different computer.
The example is given here for Windows but you can do almost the same on Linux, in this case use the tar installer for an easy setup.
The commands suppose your removable media is mounted on E: change accordingly if it use another letter.
This description use mostly a command line window for the clarity of the explanation but you can also use the equivalent graphical tool.
To open a command line window use the Start menu → Accessories → Command Prompt
1) Create a new folder on your removable media:
E: mkdir portable_skychart cd \portable_skychart
2) Copy the program code:
xcopy /S "C:\Program Files\Ciel\*" Ciel\
If you not want to install the Skychart software on your computer, see the additional steps below
3) Create a folder for the program configuration:
cd \portable_skychart mkdir userdata
4) Create a startup script:
cd \portable_skychart notepad skychart.cmd
Type the following and save the file:
@ECHO off set basedir=%CD% start %basedir%\Ciel\skychart.exe --config="%basedir%\userdata\skychart.ini" --userdir="%basedir%\userdata"
Now you can plug this USB stick on any (Windows) computer and run the program with a double click on skychart.cmd.
You need a specific program to extract the files from the Windows installer without to run it.
1) Get innounp from http://sourceforge.net/projects/innounp/files/ and put the file in E:\portable_skychart :
2) To extract the files use 7zip or the following command line:
unrar e innounp036.rar
3) Get CdC windows installer from http://ap-i.net/skychart
A portable install require a version more recent than 3.7-2196. Copy the file in E:\portable_skychart
4) Extract the CdC files without running the installer:
innounp.exe -x skychart-3.7-2196-windows.exe
5) Rename the application directory:
move {app} Ciel
6) Delete the unneeded files:
del innounp036.rar innounp.exe innounp.htm install_script.iss skychart-3.7-2196-windows.exe rmdir /S {userappdata}
If you not want to let any trace in the registry of the computer you need to inactivate the server functionality. Otherwise a registry key indicating the connection port is created.
cd userdata notepad skychart.ini
Locate the line starting with AutostartServer, set the following and save the file:
[main] AutostartServer=0
Since skychart-3.7-2196 it is possible to copy the configuration file skychart.ini from an existing installation to the userdata folder.
Another option is to save and reload a chart using the menu File/Save as , File/Open.