Software Distributor Administration Guide (March 2009)

Glossary
NOTE: A glossary term appears in boldface when defined for the first time in
the text of this manual. Italicized terms in the following glossary refer to other
terms in the glossary.
A
Access
Control Lists
(ACL)
A structure attached to a software object that defines access permissions for multiple users and
groups. It extends the permissions defined by the HP-UX file system’s mode bits by letting you
specify the access rights of many individuals and groups instead of just one of each.
Administrative Host
See local host.
Agent The agent (swagent) runs on the local host. It services all selection, analysis, execution and status
requests. It is scheduled by the daemon and guided by the SD-UX controller.
Alternate
Depot
Directory
A depot directory located someplace other than the default location.
Alternate Root/Alternate Root Directory
A Target for software installation, where the Target is not the primary Root (/) and where the
software can be stored or referenced, but not configured or used.
Analysis/Analysis Phase
The second phase of a software installation, copy, or remove operation, during which the host
executes a series of checks to determine if the selected products can be installed, copied, removed,
or verified on the host. The checks include the execution of check scripts and disk space analysis
(DSA).
Ancestor An attribute that names a previous version of a fileset. This is used to match filesets on a target
system. If the match_target option is set to true, SD-UX matches the ancestor fileset name to
the new fileset name.
Applied
The state in which a patch is installed. When a patch is installed, by default it has the patch_state
of applied. Other patch states include committed and superseded and committed/superseded.
Architecture A keyword that represents the operating system platform on which the product runs.
Archive file
A .o file that needs to be replaced in an existing archive using the ar command. Used for patch
files.
Ask An operation in which SD-UX runs an interactive request script to get a response from the user.
Request scripts can be run by the swask, swconfig, and swinstall commands.
Attributes Information describing a software object’s characteristics. For example, product attributes include
revision number, tag (name), and contents (list of filesets). Fileset attributes include tag, revision,
kernel, and reboot. File attributes include mode, owner, and group. An essential part of the Product
Specification File, attributes include such information as the product’s short name or tag, a one-line
full name title or a one paragraph description of the object. Other attributes include a
multi-paragraph README file, a copyright information statement and others.
Authorization In SD-UX security, checking that a user has the necessary permissions to perform a specific action,
as defined by an Access Control List.
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