Creating custom-installable software distributions

Here is an overview of the process of creating a simple custom-installable SSO-standard product with the CDMT:

1. Decide on a product structure

   Define your product hierarchy using the SSO standard.

2. Determine the attributes of each file

   Decide whether files are shared (read-only) or non-shared (read-write) and (optionally) public or private.

3. Set up the distribution tree

   Set up the source tree, check out the source code files from your source code version management system, build the source tree, and generate the distribution tree.

4. Set up your CDMT environment

   Before running the CDMT tools, you must set up a directory for the tools to generate their output files. Optionally, you can create a cdmt.config(CDMT) file to customize CDMT behavior.

5. Create the CDMT input files

   For each component of the product, create three CDMT input files:

   • Product description file (.prd)

   • Component description file (.cmpnt)

   • Package description file (.pkg)

   See cdmtInput(CDMT).

6. Create and populate the SSO tree

   Use cdmtParse(CDMT) and cdmtCompress(CDMT).

7. Create the custom-installable SSO archives

   Use cdmtArchive(CDMT).

For more advanced installations such as upgrades and installations that prompt the user for input, you can also create component scripts that custom runs at installation time. Although the SSO standard does not require that you create component scripts, you can use these scripts to create more powerful and robust installations. See ``Advanced software installations''.

See also:

• ``About Software Storage Objects (SSO)''