CC FLAG UPDATE - Building Solaris Packages Quickly - An Old Post Revisited

Hey There,

Updated Some More - Thank you for your emails :) I've updated this once more to hard-code the CC=gcc flag on the configure line. This db package's configure script appears not to pickup gcc more often than it does, so, unless you're using cc, it's best just to force gcc.

Now that we've just gotten through a marathon "how to" on creating Linux RPMS, I'd thought I'd look back at the old post I referenced at the beginning of the week regarding making your own Solaris packages.

That post was, and still is, theoretically sound. Although, looking back at it, I feel that it really lacked the kind of example work-up that would have made the instructions come back and hit home. So with reference to my original (admittedly dry) instruction on how to make your own Solaris pkg files, here's a quick example of the actual process of creating a package from compiling your software to the finished product. Hopefully this will not only flesh-out the original post, but also show how much simpler this is to do in reality than it is in theory :)

And, in an effort to make up for lost time and dispel any possibility of confusion, we're going to use a real freely-available source gzip that anyone can grab for free and walk through this on their own Solaris machine step-by-step, cut-and-paste. Here are the basic requirements in order to reproduce this on your own without having to do any extra work outside of the instructions posted:

1. Have gcc and make installed on your Solaris System.
2. Run Solaris on Sparc (not x_86 or Intel - although this should still work).
3. If possible, use the 64 bit version (As long as the "isainfo" or "isalist" commands return "sparcv9" somewhere in their output, you should be in the same boat I am as I do this compile and package creation. Again, this probably won't be an issue if you use 32 bit.

And that should be it. Now we just need to download the Berkeley DB 4.6.21 source gzipped tarball (available by clicking the name of the product on this line or here ;)

And off we go! I'm going to basically walk through this by example (what I'll actually type during the process) and leave out the tons of output from "configure" and "make," etc, so this doesn't get too hard to read. Hopefully, it will be painfully easy to understand :)

Step 1. Unpack and build your software (grab your Berkeley DB source now if you haven't already!

SPECIAL NOTE: This post has been updated to reflect the need to run configure from the build_unix subdirectory under the db-4.6.21 directory. You may also need to set CC=gcc as an option on your configure command line, but db should pick it up as long as it comes first in your PATH. Apologies for the typo.

host # mkdir /tmp/build
host # cp db-4.6.21.tar.gz /tmp/build/.
host # cd /tmp/build
host # gzip -d -c db-4.6.21.tar.gz|tar xvpf -
... <--- This will be shorthand for obligatory command output that doesn't make a difference to us here.
host # cd db-4.6.21
host # cd build_unix
host # ../dist/configure CC=gcc --prefix=/usr/local/db-4.6.21
...
host # make
...
host # make docdir=/usr/local/db-4.6.21/doc/4.6.21 install
...
host # cd /tmp/build
host # rm -r db-4.6.21

And we're done with the compile :)

Step 2. Create the Solaris pkg file from our installation!

host # cd /usr/local/db-4.6.21
host # find . -print|pkgproto >prototype
host # echo "i pkginfo" >>TEMPFILE
host # echo "i checkinstall" >>TEMPFILE
host # cat prototype >>TEMPFILE
host # mv TEMPFILE prototype
host # vi checkinstall <--- For the two files we need to edit, I'll just indent and put the contents of each below the lines where I use "vi" (my favorite editor). You can edit the file with any editor you want :)

#!/bin/sh

 platform_should_be="sparc"
 platform=`uname -p`
 if [ ${platform} != ${platform_should_be} ]
 then
  echo "PROGRAM can only be installed on ${platform_should_be}"
  exit 1
 fi
 exit

host # vi pkginfo

SUNW_PRODNAME="SunOS"
 SUNW_PRODVERS="5.9"
 SUNW_PKGTYPE="usr"
 PKG="MTdb"
 NAME="Berkely DB-4.6.21"
 VERSION="4.6.21"
 VENDOR="Open Source"
 ARCH="sparc"
 EMAIL="eggi@comcast.net"
 CATEGORY="application"
 BASEDIR=/usr/local/db-4.6.21
 DESC="http://linuxshellaccount.blogspot.com DB-4.6.21"
 PSTAMP="The Linux And Unix Menagerie"
 CLASSES="none"

host # pkgmk -b `pwd` -d /tmp
...
host # pkgtrans -s /tmp /tmp/build/MTdb.pkg MTdb
...
host # rm -r /tmp/MTdb

And now you can move the /tmp/build/MTdb.pkg file anywhere on the file system you want. You should be able to utilize all the applicable "pkginfo" command options against it and it should install as easily (assuming you left it in /tmp/build) as this (of course, it won't be any harder if you install it from anywhere else ;)

host # pkgadd -d /tmp/build/MTdb.pkg

also

host # pkgrm MTdb <--- If you ever want to delete it from the package repository

Hope you enjoyed that whirlwind tour of a Solaris package (pkg) build in almost-real-time. Hopefully, also, it helps complement our previous post on creating Solaris packages by giving you a solid working example to compare against the theory!

Cheers,


, Mike

linux unix internet technology

Making Your Own Solaris Packages!

While there are more than a few ways to pack up and distribute software distro's you've either downloaded and custom-compiled, or built yourself from scratch, if you work on a lot of Solaris boxes, it's nice to be able to produce legitimate "pkg" files to showcase your efforts.

Today, we'll look at how easily this can be done (although, of course, many other methods are much much less drawn-ouot). After reading through this post, you should be able to create your own "pkg" files and even (we'll look at this in some detail in a future post) script out and automate the process with a little ingenuity :)

For the purposes of this post, we'll assume that we're going to build the latest version of PROGRAM (pardon my lack of originality in naming ;)

1. First, ensure that you have the disk space and compile your program with the "--prefix" suffix (pretty much standard now with all publicly available source builds):

cd /tmp/PROGRAM_SOURCE
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/builds/PROGRAM
make
make install

2. Now you should have your program built and installed under /usr/local/builds/PROGRAM, with all the subdirectories beginning there (e.g. /usr/local/builds/PROGRAM/bin, /usr/local/builds/PROGRAM/sbin, etc). Make sure that all the files have the ownership and permissions that you will want them to have when your "pkg" file is complete!

3. Now we'll create the "prototype" file. Add all necessary links (like usr=/usr) for all subdirectories that you want your package to unpack into. We're going to assume that your package is going to unpack into the root directory (/) like most Solaris "pkg" files:

cd /usr/local/builds/PROGRAM
find . -print|pkgproto usr=/usr bin=/bin sbin=/sbin etc=/etc >prototype

4. Then, add pointers to the prototype file. You'll "need" one to the "pkginfo" file that we'll create soon, and you can also create entries for "preinstall," "postinstall" and "checkinstall" files, although they're not completely necessary. "checkinstall" is a good file to have if you want to be able to ensure that your package won't install if it is somehow corrupt or not being installed on a proper system.
Note that the "checkinstall" script is run by the user "nobody," and runs automatically, so your source needs to be accessible for checks by that user in order for it to work correctly. "preinstall" and "postinstall" are run as "root" and prompt the user to run them. You can also add a line to reference a script to check dependencies within the "prototype" file of the form "depend=/path/to/depend/script." Add the following to the top of the /usr/local/builds/PROGRAM/prototype file:

i pkginfo
i checkinstall

5. Now create a "pkginfo" file with the basics:

SUNW_PRODNAME="SunOS"
SUNW_PRODVERS="5.10"
SUNW_PKGTYPE="usr"
PKG="PROGRAM"
NAME="The PROGRAM Progam"
VERSION="1.0"
ARCH="sparc"
VENDOR="XYZ, Inc."
EMAIL="insertyouremailhere"
CATEGORY="system"
ISTATES="S 1 2 3"
RSTATES="S 1 2 3"

Lots of these aren't necessary, and are self explanatory. ISTATES are the acceptable run levels in which the package can be installed. RSTATES are the acceptable run levels in which it can be removed.

6. And create a simple "checkinstall" file as well (both the "pkginfo" and "checkinstall" files need to be in the same directory as the "prototype" file and the software - in our case /usr/local/builds/PROGRAM):

#!/bin/sh

# Sample checkinstall script

platform_should_be="sparc"
platform=`uname -p`
if [ ${platform} != ${platform_should_be} ]
then
echo "PROGRAM can only be installed on ${platform_should_be}"
exit 1
fi
exit 0

7. Now, we're finally ready to create the package with "pkgmk" and "pkgtrans":

cd /usr/local/builds/PROGRAM <--- just in case we wandered off
pkgmk -b `pwd` -d /tmp <--- "-b" is your source base diretory and "-d" indicates the "device" (in this case, the /tmp directory) into which you want to build the actual "pkg" file.
pkgtrans -s /tmp /usr/local/builds/PROGRAM.pkg PROGRAM.pkg <--- The "-s" indicates that you want to translate the PROGRAM.pkg file in /tmp in datastream format as /usr/local/builds/PROGRAM.pkg

Now you're all set to grab the PROGRAM.pkg file from the /usr/local/builds directory and install it with "pkgadd" on any Solaris system you want to (depending, of course, on the restrictions you put in place in your "checkinstall" - and possibly "depend" - script)!

, Mike

linux unix internet technology