(Disclaimer: I've joined this discussion because my project needs to 
port itself to IPS packaging so talk of installation requirements is 
intensely interesting right now :)

(a) My first reading is that these guidelines imply that products will 
have installer programs which do prerequisite checking, logging of 
interactive or command arg inputs, call 'pkg install' logging the 
results, followed by verification and optionally, configuration. "An 
uninstaller" specifically sounds like more than 'pkg uninstall.' If this 
reading is correct then both these cases would not have the 
administrator using the pkg command directly.

- these requirements seem to go beyond a package stating a dependency on 
another package and automatically bringing it along as a bag of bits, 
e.g., "..the presence of a specific registry or database."

- what's the solution in the case where a product does require a 
specific version of JDK (or other Supporting Thing) but the user would 
choose not to install the product in question rather than bring in this 
dependency?

(b) if a product is supposed to ship an installer that wraps the pkg 
command, how does the installer get to the user's system to be invoked?

- I could imagine that the pattern for delivering an installer could be 
for the user to run 'pkg install' on a single product package that 
delivers the installer itself, then the smf action invokes the installer 
which makes more 'pkg install' calls if the initial conditions are met.

(c) My project is exactly at the stage of needing to decide if correct 
path for the user to install our product is for the user to invoke 'pkg 
install' (with dependencies being correctly set up, of course) then 
invoke a configuration step, or if we need to write an installer that 
wraps the pkg command...

Comments?

thx,  --emk

Shawn Walker wrote:
> Does anyone have any thoughts on whether this case applies to us, and if 
> so, how?
>
> http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/arc/caselog/2008/547/
> http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/arc/caselog/2008/547/materials/serviceability-guidelines-1-0-html/
>
> It seems to apply more to a end-user application as opposed to one that 
> manages end-user applications.
>
> However, many of its guidelines seem like they could be applied in a few 
> ways to us (though I don't foresee any changes resulting as we appear to 
> be doing everything already or will be).
>
> Cheers,
>   
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