Software Package Builder 5.0 User's Guide

Software Package Builder Overview
Software Package Builder (SPB) provides a visual method to create and edit software packages
using the HP-UX Software Distributor (SD-UX) 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 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 can be
added to an automated process for editing and validation of a PSF.
SPB can assist with the following tasks:
• Creating a product specification file (PSF) to organize files into products, filesets, and
optionally, into bundles and subproducts
• Setting attribute values to define software package characteristics such as revision,
architecture, file permissions, and dependencies
• Validating the PSF against packaging policies to ensure successful packaging into a software
depot with the swpackage command
• Editing and validating the PSF automatically as part of a nightly build process using SPB’s
CLI
• Viewing and editing multiple PSF’s
• Viewing and validating depots and copying data from a depot to create a PSF
• Handling unregistered depot on a remote machine without throwing an error.
• Testing or creating a software package by running the swpackage command from within
the SPB GUI
• Validating and previewing installation errors of the depot on multiple hosts, before installing
the depot on the hosts.
Software Package Builder offers the following features:
Table 1-1 Features of Software Package Builder
DescriptionFeature
Provides an easy-to-use interface, making the complex task
of creating a PSF easier.
Graphical User Interface (GUI) for creating PSFs in SD-UX
format.
Provides a mechanism for easy automation of PSF edits
and validation.
Command Line Interface (CLI) for automating nightly
changes to packages.
Easy to create a valid PSF without in-depth knowledge of
all the packaging policies.
Policy validator for verifying a package’s use of legal
SD-UX syntax.
Easy to repackage software from various formats into
SD-UX, allowing you to manage software with the SD-UX
software management toolset.
Open source software can be packaged in SD-UX format.
Allows you to specify the rules file you want to validate
your PSF against.
User-specified rules files.
Allows you to view and validate depots and copy
information from a depot to create a PSF.
Depot view.
Allows you to run the swpackage command from within
the SPB GUI to create a software package.
Package software.
Software Package Builder and HP-UX Software Distributor
It is important to understand the relationship between SPB and SD-UX.
8 Introduction to Software Package Builder