The "install" button should go to the /install section, not to the release page

[eguiraud]

Our current release pages have several issues (#124, #68, #66, #62), but more than anything, I don't think they are a good place to find information on how to install ROOT -- and they shouldn't be, we have /install for that. In fact the behavior of the button must have changed at some point, because a few weeks ago that button pointed to the /download section, not to a release page.

As a non-expert user: I land on root.cern, click the big "Install v6.20/04" button, and end up at https://root.cern/releases/release-62004 which only lists some of the ways in which ROOT can be installed, and with little to no explanation.

What do you think? Can we change where the button points to?

[couet]

yes surely. let me check

[couet]

The change was done by the PR from Axel:
fafd6ae
The last PR I did was to autosize the link but the "Install V..." button point to the link Axel defined.

[eguiraud]

Alright but my point really wasn't to ask who changed it 😄 What's your opinion?

[Axel-Naumann]

We need install info for a specific version. I'm perfectly ok to have that button link to /install, but then /install needs links to {{%latest}} so to say, in docker etc. We need to make it easy for people to upgrade to the latest ROOT version.

[eguiraud]

We need install info for a specific version.

We need to make it easy for people to upgrade to the latest ROOT version.

I totally agree, the problem is that the release pages do not contain useful install info. Besides the issues already listed above:

• they do not list several of the available installation options
• they fail to mention the need to install pre-requisites for the installation methods mentioned
• I don't think the suggested setup command . /cvmfs/sft.cern.ch/lcg/app/releases/ROOT/6.22.00/x86_64-centos7-gcc48-opt/bin/thisroot.sh works on systems other than lxplus because dependencies might be missing?
• it shows the source distribution first, and does not explain how to use either that or the binary distribution. For the non-expert user, it's not clear which one is better for them

/install needs links to {{%latest}}

It does, at the top of the page. Automatically using {{%latest}} in the installation instructions is not always easy (because sometimes you need 6.22.02, sometimes v6-22-00, sometimes LCG_98), so instead I put comments such as #substitute v6-20-00-patches with the patches branch of the latest release in the example commands. I realize this can be improved, I'll take care of it.

[eguiraud]

Hi,
I'd like to revive the conversation here: the binary release pages are very confusing for a non-expert user (see all the issues mentioned above) and should not be what users see when they press the nice big friendly "install v6.22/02" button on the front page.