HISTORY(5,F) AIX Technical Reference HISTORY(5,F)
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history
PURPOSE
Contains the history of an installed licensed program product.
DESCRIPTION
Each licensed program or component of a licensed program that is shipped by IBM
contains a history file. The purpose of a history file is to identify the
installed release and version of a licensed program or component and to provide
a record of any updates (level changes). A history file is replaced when a
component is reinstalled. History files for programs installed on the
operating system are named /usr/lpp/pgm-name/lpp.hist, where pgm-name is the
name of the licensed program or component.
The history file consists of a series of 80-character records. The first two
records contain the install data and all subsequent records contain update
data. There are three different formats of 80-character records:
Record Description
Information Identified by an "a", "c", "r", or "v" character in position 1.
The install and update procedures use information records to
identify the licensed program or component name; the current
version, release, and level; the date the record was added; and
the user who initiated the install or update. Figure 5 shows the
format of the fields in the information records.
Title Identified by a t in character position 1. Contains the
descriptive title (up to 30 characters) for the licensed program
or component, starting in character position 3. The title record
must always be the second record in the history file.
Comment Identified by an * (asterisk) in character position 1. Allows
descriptive comments to be entered into the history file. An * is
usually placed in character position 79 to ensure a full 80-column
record.
The last character of each record (character position 80) must be a new-line
character. Unused character positions must be blank-filled. Tab characters
are not permitted.
The first record in a history file must be an information record with a c in
character position 1. The second record must be the title record. These two
records contain data about the installation of the program. The remaining
records in the file may be any combination of information and comment records,
and they identify updates to the program.
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Figure 5 shows the format of an information record in the history file. The
definitions for each of the fields other than character position 1 are
explained following the figure.
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Figure 5. Information Record Format
Location Field Description
1 .S The type of information record:
a Indicates that the update has been applied.
c Indicates that the update or install has been
committed (accepted).
r Indicates that the update has been rejected.
3-10 pgm-name The name assigned to the program (lowercase
characters only). If the name contains less than 8
characters, it must be padded with blanks.
11-17 reserved Reserved
18-20 VV. A 2-digit numeric field followed by a period
indicating the version number of the program. The
version number indicates the level of the hardware
and operating system with which the program works.
21-23 RR. A 2-digit numeric field followed by a period
indicating the release number of the program. The
release number tracks changes to external
programming interfaces since the last version
change. This number is generally incremented each
time the external interface to the program changes.
24-28 LLLL. A 4-digit numeric field indicating the update level
of the program. This field is incremented when the
changes to the program do not affect external
programs that may use the documented external
interface for the program. The level, together with
the S field, ensures that all changes up to and
including the current change are installed on the
system.
The fourth (or units) digit of the level is normally
0. IBM reserves this digit for future use.
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Location Field Description
29-32 FFFF A 4-digit numeric field indicating the fix number
applied to the program. A fix number of 0 denotes
an upgrade; all other values denote fixes.
33 blank Blank
34-39 DDMMYY These three numeric fields indicate the date the
program changed:
DD Day of the month (1 to 31).
MM Month of the year (1 to 12).
YY Year (00 to 99).
40 blank Blank
41-48 username An alphanumeric field that contains the user name of
the person who installed the program. If the user
name is shorter than eight characters, it must be
padded with blanks.
49 blank Blank
50-79 comment A 30-character field for comments. An * (asterisk)
field is usually placed in character position 79 to ensure
a full 80-column record.
80 \n A required new-line character, indicating the end of
the record.
Each cluster site also has a local history file that is used to log relevant
information on changes made to the local file system on that site. This file
is called /local/lpp.hist. Local history files are of interest to the system
administrator as a log of each site's past. They are not used for determining
the local changes pending for a site or as a means of controlling programs;
these functions are performed by the queue mechanism.
The format for the local history file is identical to the format described
above.
FILE
/usr/lpp/pgm-name/lpp.hist
RELATED INFORMATION
The installp and updatep commands in AIX Operating System Commands Reference.
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