install Technical Information install
Building distribution kits for use by install
/etc/install provides a standardized mechanism to install
upgrades and add-on software to the COHERENT system.
install is invoked with a command line of the form:
/etc/install id device ndisks
where id specifies the update or add-on package to be installed,
device is the ``mountable'' block device from which the update or
add-on package will be installed, and ndisks specifies the number
of diskettes in the distribution.
The id field should be formed from the set of upper- and lower-
case letters, as well as digits, the period (.), and the under-
score (_) character. Its length cannot exceed nine characters.
Field device should be selected from the standard block-special
floppy-disk devices.
***** Distribution Details *****
Distributions usable by install consist of a set of mountable
floppy disks, each containing a file system created by mkfs.
This allows the diskettes to be independent of each other and
also allows the user to insert the diskettes in any order. in-
stall records the fact that it has read a given diskette from the
distribution, thus preventing the user from attempting to read a
given diskette more than once during an installation session.
Diskettes should be built using mkfs, with possible input being
generated by unmkfs. Each diskette in the distribution must con-
tain a file of the form
/id.sequence
in the root directory. Here, id must match the aforementioned
field of the same name. The sequence part of the file name in-
dicates which diskette in the distribution this diskette is, from
one through the total number of diskettes.
install uses the command cpdir to copy each of the distribution
diskettes to directory / on the current system. Therefore, all
diskettes should be ``root based'' (i.e., full path names should
be used). Because install is run by the superuser, cpdir preser-
ves the date and time for each file, and preserves ownership and
modes. To keep file ownership consistent with COHERENT conven-
tions, make files that are neither setuid nor setgid owned by
user bin and group bin. Directories found on the distribution
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install Technical Information install
diskettes will be created on the target file system, as needed.
Be careful when choosing the ownership and mode of directories
because your system's security could inadvertently be com-
promised.
***** Postprocessing *****
After all diskettes in a distribution have been successfully
copied, install checks for the existence of a file of the form
/conf/id.post
where id matches the id field found on the install command line.
If found, install executes this file to allow special
``postprocessing,'' such as installing additional manual pages or
performing installation-specific commands.
Before you complete your postprocessing, you should remove any id
files of the following form from the target system:
/conf/id.post
/id.sequence
***** Adding Manual-Page Entries *****
As part of building a distribution, you will usually need to
generate pre-processed or ``cooked'' manual-page entries for dis-
tribution with your upgrade or add-on package. These should
reside in subdirectories of /usr/man, with the name of the sub-
directory being specific to your product. This naming convention
avoids name-space collisions, should multiple applications use
the same name for a manual-page entry.
If you install new or additional manual pages, you must update
the index file used by the man command to locate manual entries.
File /usr/man/man.index on the target file system contains index
entries for all manual pages on the system. As part of
postprocessing, you will generally need to append index informa-
tion for your manual pages to the end of the existing index file.
In addition, file /usr/man/man.help contains the man command's
help message. This includes a list of valid topics and some ex-
planatory text. You should also append to this file a brief list
of the manual page entries that you have added. For further in-
formation on manual pages, see the Lexicon entry for the command
man.
***** Logging *****
install logs all partial as well as completed installations in
file /etc/install.log. This information includes date/time
stamps and the command line arguments to install.
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***** Files *****
/etc/install.log
***** See Also *****
install (command), man, mkfs, technical information, unmkfs
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