User's Manual

Table Of Contents
Controlling applications
You can specify the PRM group each application can run in as discussed in the following sections:
Adding/modifying an application’s group assignment ” (page 67)
You can remove an application’s group assignment as discussed in the following sections:
“Removing an application’s group assignment ” (page 68)
Duplicate application records
Be careful to avoid duplicating application records. A duplicate record specifies the same
application and alternate name (if any) as another record, but uses a different PRM group. The
application is the same if the file ID or pathname matches. The file ID is based on the file system
device and inode number.
For example, in the records below, the two applications /usr/bin/mv and /bin/mv have the
same underlying file ID, but are assigned to two different PRM groups. Because of the ambiguity,
it is impossible to accurately predict which PRM group would get the application.
/usr/bin/mv::::GroupA
/bin/mv::::GroupB # duplicate record
In the next example, the application is now /usr/bin/mv in both records. However, the alternate
names cp and mv have been added to the records. These two records would be fine in the same
configuration file if the first record had only mv as an alternate name. In that case, /usr/bin/mv
would be placed in GroupA when invoked with the mv command and in GroupB when invoked
with the cp command. However, with cp as an alternate name in both records, we have another
ambiguity.
/usr/bin/mv::::GroupA,cp,mv
/usr/bin/mv::::GroupB,cp # duplicate record
It is possible to add duplicate application records when editing a configuration file. This happens
most often when working with large configuration files.
PRM checks for duplicate records when you load a configuration. If there are any duplicate records
in a configuration file, trying to load the file produces errors. In this case, remove the duplicate
records and load the configuration file again.
Missing applications are ignored
PRM ignores the application records for missing applications.
This functionality, as opposed to generating errors, is desirable when using a single configuration
for multiple systems that have different applications installed.
Applications records are also ignored if they reference applications on filesystems that are not
mounted at the time PRM is configured. Reload the PRM configuration with prmconfig when the
filesystem is present for the application records to take effect.
Application record syntax
This section explains the application record syntax.
Application records assign applications to PRM groups. Each record specifies an application and
the PRM group it and its child processes can run in. Application records are optional; if an
application does not have a record, it runs in the PRM group of the user who invoked it.
Specify application records using the following syntax:
APPLICATION::::GROUP[,ALT_NAME[,...,ALT_NAME]]
where
APPLICATION Specifies the full pathname of an executable application, the shell/interpreter
in the case of a script, or your Java binary—starting with a slash (/).
Configuring PRM 65