Guide to Preparing Product Kits

Product Version: Digital UNIX Version 4.0 or higher 1996

This book describes the procedures for creating, maintaining, and installing layered product kits.

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NFS is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed exclusively through X/Open Company, Ltd.

About This Manual

This manual describes the procedures for creating, installing, and managing product kits to be installed on Digital UNIX (R) systems.

Audience

This manual is primarily for kit developers responsible for creating product kits. This manual assumes you are a moderately experienced user of the Digital UNIX system with knowledge of system administration.

Organization

This manual is organized as follows:

Chapter 1	Introduction
	Presents an introduction to the kit-building process.
Chapter 2	Creating the Kit Directory Structure
	Describes how to create the kit directory and build the product kit.
Chapter 3	Creating and Managing Subset Control Programs
	Describes how to write subset control programs (SCPs) to install and manage software subsets.
Chapter 4	Creating Subsets
	Describes how to create subsets and subset control files with the `newinv` and `kits` utilities.
Chapter 5	Producing Distribution Media
	Describes how to produce a product kit on the distribution media.
Chapter 6	Installing the Kit
	Describes how to install the product kit on the target system.
Appendix A	Digital UNIX Standard Directory Structure
	Describes the standard directory hierarchy of Digital UNIX systems.
Glossary	Defines terms used in this manual.

Related Documents

The printed version of the Digital UNIX documentation set is color coded to help specific audiences quickly find the books that meet their needs. (You can order the printed documentation from Digital.) This color coding is reinforced with the use of an icon on the spines of books. The following list describes this convention:

Audience	Icon	Color Code
General users	G	Blue
System and network administrators	S	Red
Programmers	P	Purple
Device driver writers	D	Orange
Reference page users	R	Green

Some books in the documentation set help meet the needs of several audiences. For example, the information in some system books is also used by programmers. Keep this in mind when searching for information on specific topics.

The Documentation Overview, Glossary, and Master Index provides information on all of the books in the Digital UNIX documentation set.

You may find the following documents helpful when preparing product kits:

Installation Guide
This manual describes the procedures to perform an update installation, a basic installation, or an advanced installation of the Digital UNIX product on all supported processors. It explains how to prepare your system for installation, boot the processor, and perform the installation procedure. It also discusses system management procedures in a standalone environment.
System Administration
This manual describes how to configure, use, and maintain the Digital UNIX operating system. It includes information on general day-to-day activities and tasks, changing your system configuration, and locating and eliminating sources of trouble. This manual is for the system administrators responsible for managing the operating system. It assumes a knowledge of operating system concepts, commands, and configurations.
Sharing Software on a Local Area Network
This manual describes Remote Installation Services (RIS) and Dataless Management Services (DMS). The RIS utility is used for installing software across a network, instead of using locally mounted media. DMS allows a server system to maintain the root, /usr, and /var file systems for client systems. Each client system has its own root file system on the server, but shares the /usr and /var file systems.
This manual can be helpful if you are preparing a foreign device kit that will be installed in a RIS environment.
Writing Device Drivers: Tutorial
This manual provides information for systems engineers who write device drivers for hardware that runs the Digital UNIX operating system. Systems engineers can find information on driver concepts, device driver interfaces, kernel interfaces used by device drivers, kernel data structures, configuration of device drivers, and header files related to device drivers.
This manual can be helpful if you are preparing product kits for a device driver.
Reference Pages Section 8 and 1m
This section describes commands for system operation and maintenance. It is for system administrators. In printed format, this section is divided into two volumes.
Release Notes
The release notes describe problems you might encounter when working with the Digital UNIX system and possible solutions for those problems. The printed format also contains information about new and changed features of the operating system, as well as plans to retire obsolete features of the operating system. Obsolete features are features that have been replaced by new technology or otherwise outdated and are no longer needed. The release notes are for the person installing the product and for anyone using the product following installation.

Reader's Comments

Digital welcomes any comments and suggestions you have on this and other Digital UNIX manuals.

You can send your comments in the following ways:

Fax: 603-881-0120 Attn: UEG Publications, ZK03-3/Y32
Internet electronic mail: readers_comment@zk3.dec.com
A Reader's Comment form is located on your system in the following location:
```
/usr/doc/readers_comment.txt
```
Mail:
```
Digital Equipment Corporation
UEG Publications Manager
ZK03-3/Y32
110 Spit Brook Road
Nashua, NH 03062-9987
```
A Reader's Comment form is located in the back of each printed manual. The form is postage paid if you mail it in the United States.

Please include the following information along with your comments:

The full title of the book and the order number. (The order number is printed on the title page of this book and on its back cover.)
The section numbers and page numbers of the information on which you are commenting.
The version of Digital UNIX that you are using.
If known, the type of processor that is running the Digital UNIX software.

The Digital UNIX Publications group cannot respond to system problems or technical support inquiries. Please address technical questions to your local system vendor or to the appropriate Digital technical support office. Information provided with the software media explains how to send problem reports to Digital.

Conventions

The following typographical conventions are used in this manual:

#: A number sign represents the superuser prompt.
% cat: Boldface type in interactive examples indicates typed user input.
file: Italic (slanted) type indicates variable values, placeholders, and function argument names.
[|]
{|}: In syntax definitions, brackets indicate items that are optional and braces indicate items that are required. Vertical bars separating items inside brackets or braces indicate that you choose one item from among those listed.
...: In syntax definitions, a horizontal ellipsis indicates that the preceding item can be repeated one or more times.
cat(1): A cross-reference to a reference page includes the appropriate section number in parentheses. For example, cat(1) indicates that you can find information on the cat command in Section 1 of the reference pages.