Package management of OpenSolaris

GUI tool for managing packages (IPS GUI)

　OpenSolaris 2008.05 also offers a GUI written in Python to manage packages. To use IPS GUI, from the desktop menu, select System -> Administration -> Package Manager.

　By watching the video clips in Figure 3, you can learn what happens if you install IPS GUI, install packages using it, and stop installing before all packages are installed. Using DTrace allows you to easily find a file that is being written. For more information about DTrace used in the video clips, please see the author's blog (http://blogs.sun.com/katohisa/entry/fsinfo_provider%E3%81%AE%E4%BD%BF%E3%81%84%E3%81%A9%E3%81%93%E3%82%8D).

Creating your own repository

　Either smf or pkg.depotd(1) command can be used to create your own repository. It is recommended that the pkg.depotd(1) be run in the background.

# mkdir /var/my_repository
# /usr/lib/pkg.depotd -d /var/my_repository -p 9999 &
# ls /var/my_repository

　When the above commands are run, you get:

catalog file pkg search.dir search.pag trans updatelog

　Once you have created your own repository, open your browser and type http://localhost:9999 to access it. You should see "pkg server ok" page. Your repository has been successfully created.

　Now, let us go ahead and send the SVR4 package to publish it. Let's try to download SVR4 package ctags from sunfreeware (http://www.sunfreeware.com). Then, publish the downloaded package using the pkgsend(1) command.

# pkgsend -s http://localhost:9999 send ctags-5.7-sol10-x86-local

　Now, access to the URL of your own repository. You can see that the packages have been added to the Catalog.

　If you wish to learn more about how to create SMF repositories or your own IPS packages, please visit OpenSolaris Document Information (http://dlc.sun.com/osol/docs/content/IPS/ipsdev.html).

　In the next article, I will talk about a boot environment (BE) that is used when updating IPS packages.