Installation of classes

The following steps outline the system actions that occur when a class is installed. The actions are repeated once for each volume of a package as that volume is being installed.

1. pkgadd(ADM) creates a list of pathnames upon which the action script will operate. Each line of this list consists of source and destination pathnames, separated by white space. The source pathname indicates where the object to be installed resides on the installation volume and the destination pathname indicates the location on the installation machine where the object should be installed. The contents of the list is restricted by the following criteria:

   • The list contains only pathnames belonging to the associated class.

   • Directories, named pipes, character/block devices, and symbolic links are included in the list with the source pathname set to /dev/null. They are automatically created by pkgadd(ADM) (if not already in existence) and given proper attributes (mode, owner, and group) as defined in the pkgmap(F) file.

   • Linked files are not included in the list, that is, files where ftype is l. (ftype defines the file type defined in the prototype file.) Links in the given class are created in Step F.

   • If a pathname already exists on the target machine and its contents are no different from the one being installed, the pathname will not be included in the list.

     To determine this, pkgadd(ADM) compares the cksum, modtime, and size fields in the installation software database with the values for those fields in your pkgmap(F) file. If they are the same, it then checks the actual file on the installation machine to be certain it really has those values. If the field values are the same and are correct, the pathname for this object will not be included in the list.

2. If there is no class action script, the files associated with the pathnames are copied to the target machine.

   If no class action script is provided for installation of a particular class, the files in the generated pathname list will simply be copied from the volume to the appropriate target location.

3. If there is a class action script, the script is executed.

   The class action script is invoked with standard input containing the list generated in Step 1. If this is the last volume of the package and there are no more objects in this class, the script is executed with the single argument of ENDOFCLASS.

4. pkgadd(ADM) performs a content and attribute audit and creates links.

   After successfully executing Step 2 or 3, an audit of both content and attribute information is performed on the list of pathnames. pkgadd(ADM) creates the links associated with the class automatically. Detected attribute inconsistencies are corrected for all pathnames in the generated list.