Creating/merging .depot files

The Software Distributor system has two methods to provide installation packages, a depot directory with subdirectories and files and a single tar-based depot file with all of the components in what is called the tape format. Indeed, the tape format can either be written directly to tape, or for ease of use, a single file with all the components (applications, drivers, patches, etc) merged into a single .depot file.

To create a depot file, use swpackage.  swpackage uses the same style of options and selections as the other SD utilities. For example, you have the Internet Express CD for 11.11 mounted on /cdrom and you want to create a depot file with Rsync and ProFTPD available. The command would be:

swpackage -s /cdrom -x media_type=tape Rsync ProFTPD 
    @ /tmp/myPackage.depot

If instead, you have a series of patches or separate product depots, use swcopy to merge the patches into a single directory. The patch names must be <patch>.depot and they can be merged into a local repository like this (assuming PWD is where the <patch>.depot files are located:

for PATCH in PH*depot
 do
    swcopy -x enforce_dependencies=false 
      -s $PWD/$PATCH "*" @ $PWD/mycollection  
 done

Now the patches are in one repository. Repackage the directory $PWD/mycollection into a tape depot with swpackage:

swpackage -s $PWD/mycollection 
    -x media_type=tape "*" @ /tmp/myPackage.depot

The file: /tmp/myPackage.depot may now be transferred to another machine, perhaps across a firewall that  won’t allow the usual SD network depot access, and installed with:

swinstall -s /tmp/myPackage.depot "*"

If you have products or patches that require a reboot, add the option -x enforce_dependencies=false to the swinstall command:

swinstall -x enforce_dependencies=false -s /tmp/myPackage.depot  "*"