Solaris 11 IPS hand-on LAB – Managing software Packages

In the last post we created an IPS repository. Let us now see how we can manage the software packages in solaris 11. Now oracle has completely restructured the software management in Solaris 11 to simplify the software package administration. Lets start with some pkg commands.

Publisher Related Commands

To see which publisher configuration the machine is using

a. Local repository

# pkg publisher
PUBLISHER                   TYPE     STATUS P LOCATION
solaris                     origin   online F file://sol_11_repo/

b. Remote repository

# pkgrepo info -s /net/repo_server/sol_11_repo/
PUBLISHER PACKAGES STATUS           UPDATED
solaris   4401     online           2012-09-27T22:22:59.530981Z

To set a new publisher configuration

We can also the change the publisher :

# pkg set-publisher -g /net/repo_server2/sol_11_repo/

To check for updates for all the packages

Now we can see if there any available updates in the repository for the software packages already installed in the machine use the pkg update command with -nv option for dry run.

# pkg update -nv

Getting information about packages

To list the packages that are available in the repository :

# pkg list -g /net/repo_server/sol_11_repo/

To list the packages that are currently installed in the system :

# pkg list

We can also do a pkg list on a particular package.

# pkg list top
NAME (PUBLISHER)                                  VERSION                    IFO
diagnostic/top                                    3.8-0.175.1.0.0.24.0       i--

Here check the last column,
i in I column -> package is installed 
f in F column -> package is frozen
o in O column -> package is obsolete
r in O column -> package is available under new name

To get a detailed info about a package :

# pkg info top
          Name: diagnostic/top
       Summary: provides a rolling display of top cpu using processes
      Category: Applications/System Utilities
         State: Installed
     Publisher: solaris
       Version: 3.8 (3.8beta1)
 Build Release: 5.11
        Branch: 0.175.1.0.0.24.0
Packaging Date: September  4, 2012 05:17:59 PM
          Size: 229.39 kB
          FMRI: pkg://solaris/diagnostic/top@3.8,5.11-0.175.1.0.0.24.0:20120904T171759Z

Use -r to get the package information from the repository. In my case I have a updated top package

# pkg info -r top

To list the contents of the package and the paths, files that will be installed :

# pkg contents top
PATH
usr
usr/bin
usr/bin/top
usr/share
usr/share/man
usr/share/man/man1
usr/share/man/man1/top.1

We can search for a package which contains a particular file. For e.g. /etc/default/mpathd file.

#  pkg search mpathd
INDEX      ACTION VALUE              PACKAGE
basename   file   etc/default/mpathd pkg:/system/network@0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.24.2

Installing packages

The installation and un-installation of packages in IPS is pretty easy. Let us first see how we can install packages using IPS.
Dry run
We can do a dry run before installing any package. use the switch -nv for this

# pkg install -nv vim
           Packages to install:        1
     Estimated space available:  5.37 GB
Estimated space to be consumed: 52.47 MB
       Create boot environment:       No
Create backup boot environment:       No
          Rebuild boot archive:       No

Changed packages:
solaris
  editor/vim
    None -> 7.3.600,5.11-0.175.1.0.0.24.0:20120904T172128Z

As shown above we can check whether the package requires a rebuild of boot archive, space required by it etc.. before actually installing it.

Now to actually install the package :

# pkg install vim
           Packages to install:  1
       Create boot environment: No
Create backup boot environment: No

DOWNLOAD                                PKGS         FILES    XFER (MB)   SPEED
Completed                                1/1     1528/1528      7.8/7.8    0B/s

PHASE                                          ITEMS
Installing new actions                     1673/1673
Updating package state database                 Done
Updating image state                            Done
Creating fast lookup database                   Done

Un-Installing packages

In case of uninstalling a package you can do a dry run as we did for installing it.

# pkg uninstall -nv vim

To actually uninstall an installed package :

# pkg uninstall vim
            Packages to remove:  1
       Create boot environment: No
Create backup boot environment: No

PHASE                                          ITEMS
Removing old actions                       1717/1717
Updating package state database                 Done
Updating package cache                           1/1
Updating image state                            Done
Creating fast lookup database                   Done

Sunday, 21 October 2018