[comp.unix.aix] installp and inventory information

alan@bach.net.com (Alan Phillips) (01/19/91)

We are creating an "installp" compatible installation method for our
application and have encountered a message that we are not really sure of the
meaning of.  At the end of the installation procedure we get the following
message:
	lppchk: LPP <Application_Name> has no inventory information.

We do not call lppchk from within out script "instal".  So the first question
is:  "Where is lppchk invoked from"?  The next question is, what "inventory
information" is lppchk referring to?  Are we missing some file in our
liblpp.a library?  We have RTFM'ed but don't seem to find this information.

Another installp curiosity that there is an obvious workaround for, but that we
would like to understand, is why the existence of a file named "copyright"
in /usr/lpp/<whatever> seems to block the execution of the script "instal".
If the file "copyright" is there, the installation process will simply
display the contents of this file and end, "instal" will never be executed.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Alan
Alan Phillips 					Phone: (415) 780-4477
Network Equipment Tech., Redwood City, CA
internet: alan@bach.net.com 			UUCP: ...ames!unet!bach!alan 

dave@kleikamp.uucp (David J. Kleikamp/50000) (01/23/91)

In article <1239@unet.UUCP> alan@bach.net.com (Alan Phillips) writes:
>We are creating an "installp" compatible installation method for our
>application and have encountered a message that we are not really sure of the
>meaning of.  At the end of the installation procedure we get the following
>message:
>	lppchk: LPP <Application_Name> has no inventory information.
>
>We do not call lppchk from within out script "instal".  So the first question
>is:  "Where is lppchk invoked from"?  The next question is, what "inventory
>information" is lppchk referring to?  Are we missing some file in our
>liblpp.a library?  We have RTFM'ed but don't seem to find this information.

First of all, lppchk gets invoked if installp is called with the "-v" option.
Smit uses this flag by default.

"inventory" is an optional file in the liblpp.a library.  If it exists,
installp runs sysck creating the mentioned inventory information.  If you
can't find any info about the inventory file under the installp command, I
think the format is explained under the sysck command.

>Another installp curiosity that there is an obvious workaround for, but that we
>would like to understand, is why the existence of a file named "copyright"
>in /usr/lpp/<whatever> seems to block the execution of the script "instal".
>If the file "copyright" is there, the installation process will simply
>display the contents of this file and end, "instal" will never be executed.

I've never seen anything like that before.  All of the IBM-produced installp
images contain the copyright file.
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David J. "Shaggy" Kleikamp	dave@kleikamp.austin.ibm.com
DISCLAIMER: The content of this posting is independent of official IBM position.
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jfh@greenber.austin.ibm.com (John F Haugh II) (01/25/91)

In article <3434@d75.UUCP> dave@kleikamp.uucp (David J. Kleikamp/50000) writes:
>"inventory" is an optional file in the liblpp.a library.  If it exists,
>installp runs sysck creating the mentioned inventory information.  If you
>can't find any info about the inventory file under the installp command, I
>think the format is explained under the sysck command.

I don't think it is explicitly stated there, but the format of the
inventory file is virtually identically to the format of the file
/etc/security/sysck.cfg.  There are a few differences, most dealing
with file sizes and checksums.  I believe these are described in
some documentation.

The one place that I think has the most documentation on the SYSCK
database and the files it uses is the BOS README file.  I may still
have some viewgraphs or documentation on SYSCK if there are still
questions.
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