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Packaging your software applications

Packaging your software applications

This topic describes how to package software that will be installed on a computer running UNIX® System V Release 4 or later releases. The approach to packaging in a UNIX System V Release 4 environment differs from a pre-UNIX System V Release 4 environment. Pre-UNIX System V Release 4 packages deliver information to the system through script actions, but a UNIX System V Release 4 package does this through package information files. A packaging tool, the pkgmk(1) command, is provided to help automate package creation. It gathers the components of a package on the development machine, copies them onto the installation medium, and places them into a structure that the installation tool, pkgadd(1M), recognizes.

This topic also describes the pkgadd(1M) command, which copies the package from the installation medium onto a system and performs system housekeeping routines that concern the package. This tool is primarily for the installer but is described here to provide you with a background on the environment into which your packages will be placed and to help you test-install packages.

The first two sections describe what a package consists of and gives an overview of the structural life cycle of a package (how its structure on your development machine relates to its structure on the installation medium and on the installation machine).

The remaining sections familiarize you with the tools, files, and scripts involved in creating a package, provide suggestions for how to approach software packaging, and describe some specific procedures.

The section on set packaging describes how you can collect an arbitrary number of packages into a single installable image (the ``set'') for installation on the target machine.

After reading this topic, you should study ``Case studies of package installation'', which provides case studies using the tools and techniques described in this topic.


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