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. History files for programs installed com-
pletely on the VRM minidisk are named
/vrm/lpp/pgm-name/lpp.hist
The history file consists of a series of 80-character
records. The first 2 records contain the install data
and all subsequent records contain update data. There
are 3 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 proce-
dures 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 5-4 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.
Figure 5-4 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.
ol843029
Figure 5-4. Information Record Format
Field Description
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.
v Indicates that the VRM minidisk has been modified.
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.
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.
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.
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 doc-
umented 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.
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).
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.
comment field A 35-character field for comments. An * (asterisk) is
usually placed in character position 79 to ensure a full
80-column record.
\n A required new-line character, indicating the end of the
record.
Files
/usr/lpp/pgm-name/lpp.hist
/vrm/lpp/pgm-name/lpp.hist
Related Information
The installp and updatep commands in AIX Operating System Commands Reference.