Software Distributor

1. Introduction
2. Data types

Introduction

Software Distributor (SD-UX) is a suite of programs matching the POSIX 1003.2 (?) specification for software installation. It is the software distribution mechanism for all Hewlett-Packard software for HP-UX, and it has versions that run on at least WindowsNT.

Software distributor has four levels of software grouping: bundle, product, subproduct, and fileset. The basic unit of software distribution is the product. A product can contain both subproducts and filesets. Filesets are the atomic unit of software distribution, and they contain a set of files and control scripts. Subproducts contain filesets and are used to conveniently manage logical subsets of a single product.

Bundles are collections of products or filesets that may be installed as a unit. Bundles were designed to provide customers with a single installation unit to install when they purchased software products, such as the ANSI/C compiler. Bundles may be used to provide logical groupings for functionality, such as "web server".

Mkpkg creates product packages, while mkbdl creates bundles. Since all filesets and subproducts must belong to a product, we do not provide a separate tool for creating them

The software objects that SD-UX packages, distributes, installs and manages are files. A "packager" uses these files after they have been built (compiled) and installed into specific directory locations by the software "build" process. These directory locations range from separate, unconnected directory trees to the specific file locations that are required to make the software run on your system. You can specify files by a root directory (gathering all files below it) or by individual files. The file attributes can be taken from the files themselves, specified separately for each file or specified for a set of files.

Mkpkg always fully specifies each file individually.

The SD-UX packager provides a flexible packaging specification that fits into many software build and manufacturing processes.

Data Types

tag_string

A string containing a tag value, such as HP or SD

• Maximum length: 16 bytes
• A subset of ASCII characters
• Requires one or more alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9) including the first character
• White space characters are not allowed
• Directory path character (/) is not allowed
• SD meta-characters (. , : #) are not allowed
• Shell meta-characters (; & ( ) { } | < > " ' ` \
  one_line_string
  One line descriptive string, such as Hewlett-Packard Company

  • Maximum length: 80 bytes
  • All ASCII characters
  • No white space characters, except for space and tab, are allowed
  multi_line_string
  Descriptions, Copyrights, and READMEs

  • Maximum length:
    • Descriptions: 2048 bytes
    • Copyrights: 8192 bytes
    • READMEs: 1M bytes
      • All ASCII characters in one or more paragraphs of text that can be specified in-line, surrounded by double-quotes, or stored in a file and specified using a filename
  revision_string
  Product or fileset revisions, such as 2.0 or A.10.20

  • Maximum length: 32 bytes
  • Contains dot-separated one_line_strings
  boolean
  Either true or false

  • Maximum length: 5 bytes
  path_string
  An absolute or relative path to a file, such as /usr or ./man/man1/mkpkg.1

  • Maximum length:
    • tapes: 255 bytes
    • depots: 1023 bytes
    • source file pathnames: 1023 bytes
  uname_string
  Describes various attributes of the customer's system, such as the architecture family (9000/7*|9000/8*), the operating system (HP-UX), the operating system release (?.10.*)

  • Maximum length:
    • machine_type: 64 bytes
    • other uname attributes: 32 bytes
  path_mapping_string
  A value of the form source[=destination] where source is the directory where source files are located. The optional destination maps the source to a directory in which the files will actually be installed.

  • Maximum length: Not Applicable
  • This attribute is used by mkpkg and is not exposed to users.
  file_specification
  Specifies a file to be packaged

  • Maximum length: Not Applicable
  • This attribute is used by mkpkg and is not exposed to users.
  • Format: [-m mode] [-o [owner[,]][uid]] [-v] [-g [group[,]][gid]] [source] [destination]
  • the source and destination can be paths relative to source and destination directories specified in the path_mapping_string. Example: -m 04555 sbin/swinstall
  • You can use * to specify all files below the source directory specified in the path_mapping_string. Example: file *
  permission_string
  • Maximum length: Not Applicable
  • This attribute is used by mkpkg and is not exposed to users.
  • Format: [-m mode] [-o [owner[,]][uid]] [-v] [-g [group[,]][gid]]
  • Each component defines a default permissions value for every file defined in a fileset. The default values can be overridden in each file's specific definition. The owner and group are tag_string. The uid and gid fields are unsigned integers. The mode and umask are unsigned integers that support only the octal character set ("0" - "9").
  Software Specification
  Used to describe dependencies and bundle members, such as SD.agent or SD,r=2.0,a=S700/800_HP-UX_10.0,v=HP

  • Maximum length: Not Applicable
  • Format: bundle[.product][.subproduct][.fileset][,version]
  • Version format: [r=revision][,a=arch][,v=vendor][,c=category][,instance_id]
  version_component
  • Maximum length: Not Applicable
  • These attributes are restricted to:
    • No whitespace characters are allowed
    • Each version specification is repeatable within the component
    • Specifications can be preceded by a logical operator (=, ==, >=, <=, >, <, or !=) which performs individual comparisons on dot-separated fields
    • Pattern matching notations ([]*?!) are allowed only with the = logical operator
  • Attributes apply to tag, revision, architecture, vendor tag, and category keywords.