Options for Linux OS executable archive files - self installers

I am looking to create a web-project that is able to install with a program. The user should be able to download an archive file or tar file, run开发者_开发知识库 it (executable), and the setup script would ask for paths and configurable values and then unpack its 'payload' and sorting out the contents for deployment.

This would be a Linux version of the MSI installer. Is there such a thing for Linux operating systems? This does not involve kernel level manipulations. All it needs to do is copy directories and files on the filesystem, which should cover about 80% if not more of all the *nix distributions.

EDIT - I should mention also that this does not have to have a graphical UI - in fact it would be best if this whole process ran from the shell only.

What about BIN files? Also is it possible to simply 'shove' a tar file into an executable script?

shar archives are self-extracting in most unixes (written in sh). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shar

Software "installers" for Linux are typically distributed as "packages." This can vary from distribution to distribution, but Debian or Debian-based distributions (like Ubuntu) typically use .deb packages, Redhat and Fedora use .rpm packages (along with some other distributions).

I can't say much for any distribution but Ubuntu with the .deb packages, but these operate a lot like one would expect an installer to. However, they do not typically allow one to select installation directories - they just put it in a standard location. See http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-pkg_basics.en.html for more information on Debian packages or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPM_Package_Manager for more information on RPM.

There are some, e.g. InstallJammer http://www.linux.com/archive/feed/60380 or AutoPackage http://www.autopackage.org/

Check out autopackage. Basically a user just has to download the .package file, which contains everything, make it executable, and then run it. It can be installed from the command line if desired but there is also a GUI option if the user double clicks from the desktop.

FreeArc from http://freearc.org/ claims to create SFX archives and installers.