5 Producing Distribution Media

After you have gathered product files into subsets, you can move the subsets onto the distribution media in one of the following formats:

tar format
In tar format, the product files belonging to the same subset are dumped to the distribution media as a single file. During installation, the setld utility uncompresses the files, then moves them onto the target system, preserving the files' original directory structure. Kits for user and kernel products should be in tar format.
Direct CD-ROM (DCD) format
In DCD format, the files are written to the distribution media as a UNIX file system. Subsets distributed in DCD format cannot be compressed. Kits for foreign device products must be in DCD format.

Kits can be distributed on tape, disk, or CD-ROM, as follows:

Magnetic tape
Kits for user and kernel products can be distributed on magnetic tape. You cannot distribute foreign device kits on magnetic tape because this media does not support DCD format. Use the gentapes utility to produce kits for magnetic tape media.
Disk
Kits for any type of layered product can be distributed on disk or CD-ROM in either tar or DCD format. Use the gendisk utility to produce kits for disk media.
CD-ROM
Kits for CD-ROM are first produced on disk, then moved onto the CD-ROM. See the instructions that come with your CD-ROM device for information on copying files onto a CD-ROM.

The gentapes and gendisk utilities refer to a database file called /etc/kitcap. This file contains information about the kits that can be built on the system. This chapter describes how to edit the /etc/kitcap file and use gentapes and gendisk to produce kits for each type of media.

5.1 Editing the /etc/kitcap File

The /etc/kitcap file is a database of kit descriptors. Each record contains a product code and the names of the directories, files, and subsets that make up the product kit. The gentapes and gendisk utilities use this file when creating distribution media.

Before you can build your kit, you must add a record to the /etc/kitcap file to describe your kit. Add the record to the file according to the following conventions:

Separate fields with colons (:).
Indicate a continuation line with a backslash (\) at the end of the line.
Begin comment lines with a number sign (#); comment lines are ignored by gentapes and gendisk.
Delimit comment fields within a kitcap record by an opening number sign (#) and a closing colon (:).

The contents of a kitcap record differ depending on whether you are going to produce tape or disk media. Therefore, you must add one record for each media type on which you plan to distribute your kit.

5.1.1 Tape Media kitcap Record Format

The kitcap record for tape media specifies the following information:

Name of the product, which consists of the product code and version number specified in the CODE and VERS fields of the key file.
A code indicating the media type, either TK for TK50 tapes or MT for 9-track magnetic tapes.
Product description. This entry is usually taken from the NAME field of the key file.
Name of the kit's output directory, where the gentapes utility can find the subsets.
Three SPACE files, which are empty files used to ensure compatibility with operating system kits.
You create this file in the output area of the kit directory structure, by issuing the following commands:
# touch space # tar -cf SPACE space
The instctrl directory, relative to the output directory specification.
The names of the subsets that make up the kit.

For example, the following record would be added to the /etc/kitcap file to produce the ODB kit on TK50 tapes:

OAT100TK | Orpheus Authoring Tools: \
   /dcb_tools/output:SPACE:SPACE:SPACE: \
   instctrl:OATODB100:OATODBDOC100

The product name, OAT100, is the same name that appears in the key file. The product description, ("Orpheus Authoring Tools") also appears in the key file. The name of the output directory is specified as /dcb_tools/output, and three SPACE files are included for compatibility with operating system kits. The last line of the record contains the instctrl directory and the names of the two subsets that make up the kit -- OATODB100 and OATODBDOC100.

5.1.2 Disk Media kitcap Record Format

The kitcap record for a disk specifies the following information:

Name of the product, which consists of the product code and version number specified in the CODE and VERS fields of the key file.
The code HD, indicating disk type.
The partition on the disk media where the product should be placed. The partition is a letter between a and h. Partition c is used most often, as it exists on most UNIX file systems.
Product description, which must use underscores (_) in place of spaces. This entry is usually taken from the NAME field of the key file.
Name of the kit's output directory, where the gendisk utility can find the product subsets.
The kit's instctrl directory, relative to the output directory specification.
Names of the subsets that make up the kit.

The following example shows the kitcap record for the /dev/none driver:

ESA100HD:c:/: \
  EasyDriver_none_driver: \
  /easy/output:instctrl:ESANONE100

Based on the information supplied in this record, the gendisk utility places the kit on the c partition, in the / directory of the disk media. The kit output directory is named /easy/output, and subset control information is in the instctrl directory. The kit consists of one subset, named ESANONE100.

5.2 Building a Kit on Magnetic Tape

With the product subsets in the output area of the kit directory structure, use the gentapes utility to create the kit on magnetic tape. The syntax of the gentapes command is as follows:

gentapes [ -w -v ] [ hostname: ] product-code special

The -w option specifies that gentapes writes the tape without verifying it; the -v option specifies that the command verifies a tape without writing it first. If you specify neither option, gentapes writes the tape, rewinds it, and verifies its contents.

The optional hostname argument is the name of a remote TCP/IP network machine that contains the /etc/kitcap file. The utility searches /etc/kitcap on the remote machine for the product-code and uses it for creating the media. The colon (:) is a required delimiter for TCP/IP networks, and space is permitted between the colon and the product-code. If you do not specify a hostname, gentapes looks on your own system. You can use NFS file sharing to mount the kit files remotely on a system with the required tape drive.

The product-code is a user-defined code that describes the product. It should match the product name specified in the kitcap record, which is usually a concatenation of the NAME and VERS fields of the key file.

The special argument is the name of the device special file for the device, such as /dev/nrmt0h.

For example, the following command produces a tape kit containing the ODB user product:

% gentapes OAT100 /dev/nrmt0h

5.3 Building a Kit on a Disk

With the product subsets in the output area of the kit directory structure, use the gendisk utility to create the kit on a disk.

Note
The gendisk utility supports diskettes but does not support creation of a chained diskette kit. A kit written to diskette must fit on a single diskette or be packaged on separate diskettes.

The syntax of the gendisk command is as follows:

gendisk [ -w v ] [ -d ] [ hostname: ] product-code special

The optional hostname argument is the name of a remote TCP/IP network machine that contains the /etc/kitcap file. The utility searches /etc/kitcap on the remote machine for the product-code and uses it for creating the media. The colon (:) is a required delimiter for TCP/IP networks, and space is permitted between the colon and the product-code. If you do not specify a hostname, gendisk looks on your own system. You can use NFS file sharing to mount the kit files remotely on a system with the required tape drive.

The special argument is the name of the device special file for the device, such as /dev/rrz1a.

You can use gendisk to produce kits in either tar or DCD format, depending on whether you use the -d option.

5.3.1 Preparing a tar Formatted Kit

To prepare a kit on disk for a user or kernel product, you use the gendisk utility without the -d option. You specify the product name and the device special file name. For example, the following command creates a tar formatted kit for the /dev/none driver on the c partition of the disk named rz0:

% gendisk ESA100 /dev/rz0c

5.3.2 Using DCD Format

To create a kit for a foreign device product, you run gendisk with the -d option. The utility creates a kit in DCD format on the target disk partition specified in the /etc/kitcap entry, then transfers the kit to that partition. For example, the following command creates a kit in DCD format for the /etc/edgd device driver:

# gendisk -d EDG100 /dev/rz0c

After running gendisk, you need to perform the following additional steps:

Copy the name.kit files to the / directory of the media so that the osfboot utility can interpret the kit.
Create links for modules referenced by the osfboot utility's boot-link support.
Copy the /etc/sysconfigtab file to the kit media. This file contains configuration information regarding the devices of the kit. This information is read by osfboot and passed to the boot-linked vmunix image when it starts up.
Create a subset.kk file in the instctrl directory of the kit. The RIS utility uses this when installing the kit into a RIS area.

Note
When testing a DCD kit, be sure to reference the kit media at its mount point. For instance, if you decide to use a spare disk partition for creating a media master area, you must reference your kit to the mount point of the device.