HP-UX 11i Version 2 December 2007 Release Notes

Impact
You can continue to reliably perform software deployment operations.
Compatibility
SD remains compatible across all supported releases
Performance
Performance is the same as previous releases.
Documentation
For further information, see the following:
• Website: http://docs.hp.com/en/SD
• Primary manpage: sd(5)
Obsolescence
Not applicable.
Software Package Builder
Software Package Builder (SPB) provides a visual method to create and edit software packages
using the HP-UX Software Distributor (SD) package format. Once software is packaged, it can
easily be transferred to a distribution medium, mass produced, and installed by administrators.
The SPB graphical user interface (GUI) provides a window into the software package structure,
showing attributes that can be set for each package element. SPB dynamically loads packaging
policies and validates software package attributes against these policies. The SPB command line
interface (CLI) can also perform validation of software package attributes against policies and
supports automated edits to the software package specification.
Whether you are new to packaging or experienced, SPB can help you. Features of SPB include:
• Create a product specification file (PSF) to organize files into products, filesets, and optionally,
into bundles and subproducts.
• Set attribute values to define the software package characteristics such as revision,
architecture, file permissions, and dependencies.
• Control scripts can further customize how the software is handled when installing or
removing it on the destination system.
• Validate the PSF against packaging policies to ensure successful depot creation with the
swpackage command and subsequent software installation.
• Edit and validate the PSF automatically as part of the nightly build process using SPB's CLI.
• Validate an existing depot against packaging policies to ensure successful software
installation.
With SPB, developers and administrators can easily package software in SD format, making
management of software with standard SD tools (such as swinstall, swlist, swremove)
possible. For example, SPB makes it easy to put an SD wrapper around open source software.
As a result, software inventory management and system administration get easier.
Summary of Change
SPB now supports the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 1.5 in addition to the Java Runtime
Environment (JRE) version 1.4.
126 General System Administration