swask(1M) swask(1M)
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NAME [Toc] [Back]
swask - ask for user response
SYNOPSIS [Toc] [Back]
swask [-v] [-c catalog] [-C session_file] [-f software_file] [-J jobid]
[-Q date] [-s source] [-S session_file] [-t target_file]
[-x option=value] [-X options_file] [software_selections]
[@ target_selections]
Remarks [Toc] [Back]
+ This command supports operation on remote systems. See Remote
Operation below.
+ For an overview of all SD commands, see the sd(5) man page by
typing man 5 sd on the command line.
DESCRIPTION [Toc] [Back]
The swask command runs interactive software request scripts for the
software objects selected to one or more targets specified by
target_selections. These scripts store the responses in a response
file (named response) for later use by the swinstall and swconfig
commands. The swinstall and swconfig commands can also run the
interactive request scripts directly, using the ask option.
If the -s option is specified, software is selected from the
distribution source. If the -s option is not specified, software
installed on the target systems is selected. For each selected
software that has a request script, executing that script generates a
response file. By specifying the -c catalog option, swask stores a
copy of the response file to that catalog for later use by swinstall
or swconfig.
Remote Operation [Toc] [Back]
You can enable SD to manage software on remote systems. To let the
root user from a central SD controller (also called the central
management server or IR "manager node" ) perform operations on a
remote target (also called the host or agent):
1) Install a special HP ServiceControl Manager fileset on the remote
systems. This enables remote operations by automatically setting
up the root, host, and template Access Control Lists (ACLs) on the
remote machines and permitting root access from the controller
system. To install the fileset, run the following command on each
remote system:
swinstall -s controller:/var/opt/mx/depot11 AgentConfig.SD-CONFIG
NOTES:
+ controller is the name of the central management server.
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+ If the target is running HP-UX 10.20, use the same command but
substitute depot10 for depot11.
+ Targets previously set up by SD/OV to be managed by this
controller do not need this step.
+ SD does not require any other ServiceControl Manager filesets.
2) (Optional) swinstall, swcopy, and swremove have enhanced GUI
interfaces for remote operations. Enable the enhanced GUIs by
creating the .sdkey file on the controller. Use this command:
touch /var/adm/sw/.sdkey
NOTES:
+ This step is not required when you use SD from within the HP
ServiceControl Manager.
+ See sd(5), swinstall(1M), swcopy(1M), swjob(1M), swlist(1M)or
swremove(1M) for more information on interactive operations.
NOTE: You can also set up remote access by using swacl directly on the
remote machines to grant root or non-root access to users from the
controller system.
Options [Toc] [Back]
The swask command supports the following options:
-v Turns on verbose output to stdout.
-c catalog Specifies the pathname of an exported catalog
which stores the response files created by the
request script. swask creates the catalog if it
does not already exist.
If the -c catalog option is omitted and the source
is local, swask copies the response files into the
source depot, <distribution.path>/catalog.
-C session_file
Saves the current options and operands to
session_file. You can enter a relative or
absolute path with the file name. The default
directory for session files is
$HOME/.sw/sessions/. You can recall a session
file with the -S option.
-f software_file
Reads the list of software_selections from
software_file instead of (or in addition to) the
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command line.
-s source Specifies the source depot (or tape) from which
software is selected for the ask operation. (SD
can read both tar and cpio tape depots.)
-S session_file
Executes swask based on the options and operands
saved from a previous session, as defined in
session_file. You can save session information
from a command-line session with the -C
session_file option.
-t targetfile Specifies a default set of targets for swask.
-x option=value
Sets the session option to value and overrides the
default value (or a value in an alternate
option_file specified with the -X option).
Multiple -x options can be specified.
-X option_file Reads the session options and behaviors from
option_file.
Operands [Toc] [Back]
swask supports two types of operands: software selections followed by
target selections. These operands are separated by the "@" (at)
character. This syntax implies that the command operates on "software
selections at targets".
Software Selections [Toc] [Back]
The selections operands consist of software_selections.
swask supports the following syntax for each software_selection:
bundle[.product[.subproduct][.fileset]][,version]
product[.subproduct][.fileset][,version]
+ The = (equals) relational operator lets you specify
selections with the following shell wildcard and patternmatching
notations:
[ ], *, ?
+ Bundles and subproducts are recursive. Bundles can contain
other bundles and subproducts can contain other subproducts.
+ The \* software specification selects all products. Use this
specification with caution.
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The version component has the form:
[,r <op> revision][,a <op> arch][,v <op> vendor]
[,c <op> category][,q=qualifier][,l=location]
[,fr <op> revision][,fa <op> arch]
+ location applies only to installed software and refers to
software installed to a location other than the default
product directory.
+ fr and fa apply only to filesets.
+ The <op> (relational operator) component can be of the form:
=, ==, >=, <=, <, >, or !=
which performs individual comparisons on dot-separated
fields. For example, r>=B.10.00 chooses all revisions
greater than or equal to B.10.00. The system compares each
dot-separated field to find matches.
+ The = (equals) relational operator lets you specify
selections with the shell wildcard and pattern-matching
notations:
[ ], *, ?, !
For example, the expression r=1[01].* returns any revision
in version 10 or version 11.
+ All version components are repeatable within a single
specification (e.g. r>=AA.12, r<AA.20). If multiple
components are used, the selection must match all
components.
+ Fully qualified software specs include the r=, a=, and v=
version components even if they contain empty strings. For
installed software, l=, is also included.
+ No space or tab characters are allowed in a software
selection.
+ The software instance_id can take the place of the version
component. It has the form:
[instance_id]
within the context of an exported catalog, where instance_id
is an integer that distinguishes versions of products and
bundles with the same tag.
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Target Selections [Toc] [Back]
swask supports the following syntax for each target_selection.
[host][:][/directory]
The : (colon) is required if both a host and directory are specified.
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES [Toc] [Back]
Default Options
In addition to the standard options, several SD behaviors and policy
options can be changed by editing the default values found in:
/var/adm/sw/defaults the system-wide default values.
$HOME/.swdefaults the user-specific default values.
Values must be specified in the defaults file using this syntax:
[command_name.]option=value
The optional command_name prefix denotes one of the SD commands. Using
the prefix limits the change in the default value to that command. If
you leave the prefix off, the change applies to all commands.
You can also override default values from the command line with the -x
or -X options:
command -x option=value
command -X option_file
The following section lists all of the keywords supported by the swask
commands. If a default value exists, it is listed after the "=".
admin_directory=/var/adm/sw (for normal mode)
admin_directory=/var/home/LOGNAME/sw (for nonprivileged mode)
The location for SD logfiles and the default parent
directory for the installed software catalog. The
default value is /var/adm/sw for normal SD operations.
When SD operates in nonprivileged mode (that is, when
the run_as_superuser default option is set to true):
+ The default value is forced to /var/home/LOGNAME/sw.
+ The path element LOGNAME is replaced with the name
of the invoking user, which SD reads from the system
password file.
+ If you set the value of this option to HOME/path, SD
replaces HOME with the invoking user's home
directory (from the system password file) and
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resolves path relative to that directory. For
example, HOME/my_admin resolves to the my_admin
directory in your home directory.
+ If you set the value of the
installed_software_catalog default option to a
relative path, that path is resolved relative to the
value of this option.
SD's nonprivileged mode is intended only for managing
applications that are specially designed and packaged.
This mode cannot be used to manage the HP-UX operating
system or patches to it. For a full explanation of
nonprivileged SD, see the Software Distributor
Administration Guide, available at the
http://docs.hp.com web site.
See also the installed_software_catalog and
run_as_superuser options.
ask=true Executes the request script, if one is associated with
the selected software, and stores the user response in
a file named response.
If ask=as_needed, the swask command first determines if
a response file already exists in the catalog and
executes the request script only when a response file
is absent.
autoselect_dependencies=true
Controls the automatic selection of prerequisite and
corequisite software that is not explicitly selected by
the user. When set to true, requisite software will be
automatically selected for configuration. When set to
false, requisite software which is not explicitly
selected will not be automatically selected for
configuration.
autoselect_patches=true
Automatically selects the latest patches (based on
superseding and ancestor attributes) for a software
object that a user selects. The patch_filter option can
be used in conjunction with autoselect_patches to limit
which patches will be selected. Requires patches that
are in an enhanced SD format. Patches not in enhanced
format will not respond to autoselect_patches.
enforce_scripts=true
Controls the handling of errors generated by scripts.
If true, swask stops and an error message appears. The
message gives the script location and says execution
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cannot proceed until the problem is fixed. If false,
all script errors are treated as warnings, and swask
attempts to continue operation. A message appears
giving the script location and saying that execution
will proceed.
installed_software_catalog=products
Defines the directory path where the Installed Products
Database (IPD) is stored. This information describes
installed software. When set to an absolute path, this
option defines the location of the IPD. When this
option contains a relative path, the SD controller
appends the value to the value specified by the
admin_directory option to determine the path to the
IPD. For alternate roots, this path is resolved
relative to the location of the alternate root. This
option does not affect where software is installed,
only the IPD location.
This option permits the simultaneous installation and
removal of multiple software applications by multiple
users or multiple processes, with each application or
group of applications using a different IPD.
Caution: use a specific installed_software_catalog to
manage a specific application. SD does not support
multiple descriptions of the same application in
multiple IPDs.
See also the admin_directory and run_as_superuser
options, which control SD's nonprivileged mode. (This
mode is intended only for managing applications that
are specially designed and packaged. This mode cannot
be used to manage the HP-UX operating system or patches
to it. For a full explanation of nonprivileged SD, see
the Software Distributor Administration Guide,
available at the http://docs.hp.com web site.)
log_msgid=0
Controls the log level for the events logged to the
command log file, the target agent log file, and the
source agent log file by prepending identification
numbers to log file messages:
0 No such identifiers are prepended (default).
1 Applies to ERROR messages only.
2 Applies to ERROR and WARNING messages.
3 Applies to ERROR, WARNING, and NOTE messages.
4 Applies to ERROR, WARNING, NOTE, and certain other
log file messages.
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logdetail=false
Controls the amount of detail written to the logfile.
When set to true, this option adds detailed task
information (such as options specified, progress
statements, and additional summary information) to the
logfile. This information is in addition to log
information controlled by the loglevel option.
See loglevel below and the sd(5) manual page, by typing
man 5 sd, for more information.
logfile=/var/adm/sw/swask.log
Defines the default log file for swask.
loglevel=1
Controls the log level for the events logged to the
command logfile and the target agent logfile. A value
of
0 provides no information to the logfile.
1 enables verbose logging of key events to the log
files.
2 enables very verbose logging, including per-file
messages, to the log files.
patch_filter=*.*
Used in conjunction with the autoselect_patches or
patch_match_target options to filter the available
patches to meet the criteria specified by the filter. A
key use is to allow filtering by the "category"
attribute. Requires patches that are in an enhanced SD
patch format.
run_as_superuser=true
This option controls SD's nonprivileged mode. This
option is ignored (treated as true) when the invoking
user is super-user.
When set to the default value of true, SD operations
are performed normally, with permissions for operations
either granted to a local super-user or set by SD ACLs.
(See swacl(1M) for details on ACLs.)
When set to false and the invoking user is local and is
not super-user, nonprivileged mode is invoked:
+ Permissions for operations are based on the user's
file system permissions.
+ SD ACLs are ignored.
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+ Files created by SD have the uid and gid of the
invoking user, and the mode of created files is set
according to the invoking user's umask.
SD's nonprivileged mode is intended only for managing
applications that are specially designed and packaged.
This mode cannot be used to manage the HP-UX operating
system or patches to it. For a full explanation of
nonprivileged SD, see the Software Distributor
Administration Guide, available at the
http://docs.hp.com web site.
See also the admin_directory and
installed_software_catalog options.
verbose=1 Controls the verbosity of the output (stdout):
0 disables output to stdout. (Error and warning
messages are always written to stderr).
1 enables verbose messaging to stdout.
Session Files [Toc] [Back]
Each invocation of swask defines a task session. The invocation
options, source information, software selections, and target hosts are
saved before the task actually commences. This lets you re-execute
the command even if the session ends before proper completion.
Each session is saved to the file $HOME/.sw/sessions/swask.last. This
file is overwritten by each invocation of swask.
To save session information in a different location, execute swask
with the -C session__file option.
A session file uses the same syntax as the defaults files. You can
specify an absolute path for a session file. If you do not specify a
directory, the default location for a session file is
$HOME/.sw/sessions/.
To re-execute a session, specify the session file as the argument for
the -S session__file option.
When you re-execute a session file, the values in the session file
take precedence over values in the system defaults file. Likewise,
any command line options or parameters that you specify when you
invoke swask take precedence over the values in the session file.
Software and Target Lists [Toc] [Back]
You can use files containing software and target selections as input
to the swask command. See the -f and -t options for more information.
Environment Variables [Toc] [Back]
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The environment variable that affects the swask command is:
LANG Determines the language in which messages are
displayed. If LANG is not specified or is set to the
empty string, a default value of C is used. See
lang(5) for more information.
NOTE: The language in which the SD agent and daemon log
messages are displayed is set by the system
configuration variable script, /etc/rc.config.d/LANG.
For example, /etc/rc.config.d/LANG, must be set to
LANG=ja_JP.SJIS or LANG=ja_JP.eucJP to make the agent
and daemon log messages display in Japanese.
LC_ALL Determines the locale to be used to override any values
for locale categories specified by the settings of LANG
or any environment variables beginning with LC_.
LC_CTYPE Determines the interpretation of sequences of bytes of
text data as characters (e.g., single-versus multibyte
characters in values for vendor-defined attributes).
LC_MESSAGES [Toc] [Back]
Determines the language in which messages should be
written.
LC_TIME Determines the format of dates (create_date and
mod_date) when displayed by swlist. Used by all
utilities when displaying dates and times in stdout,
stderr, and logging.
TZ Determines the time zone for use when displaying dates
and times.
Environment variables that affect scripts:
SW_CATALOG [Toc] [Back]
Holds the path to the Installed Products Database
(IPD), relative to the path in the SW_ROOT_DIRECTORY
environment variable. Note that you can specify a path
for the IPD using the installed_software_catalog
default option.
SW_CONTROL_DIRECTORY [Toc] [Back]
Defines the current directory of the script being
executed, either a temporary catalog directory, or a
directory within in the Installed Products Database
(IPD). This variable tells scripts where other control
scripts for the software are located (e.g. subscripts).
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SW_CONTROL_TAG [Toc] [Back]
Holds the tag name of the control_file being executed.
When packaging software, you can define a physical name
and path for a control file in a depot. This lets you
define the control_file with a name other than its tag
and lets you use multiple control file definitions to
point to the same file. A control_file can query the
SW_CONTROL_TAG variable to determine which tag is being
executed.
SW_LOCATION [Toc] [Back]
Defines the location of the product, which may have
been changed from the default product directory. When
combined with the SW_ROOT_DIRECTORY, this variable
tells scripts where the product files are located.
SW_PATH A PATH variable which defines a minimum set of commands
available for use in a control script (e.g.
/sbin:/usr/bin).
SW_ROOT_DIRECTORY [Toc] [Back]
Defines the root directory in which the session is
operating, either "/" or an alternate root directory.
This variable tells control scripts the root directory
in which the products are installed. A script must use
this directory as a prefix to SW_LOCATION to locate the
product's installed files. The configure script is
only run when SW_ROOT_DIRECTORYis /.
SW_SESSION_OPTIONS [Toc] [Back]
Contains the pathname of a file containing the value of
every option for a particular command, including
software and target selections. This lets scripts
retrieve any command options and values other than the
ones provided explicitly by other environment
variables. For example, when the file pointed to by
SW_SESSIONS_OPTIONS is made available to a request
script, the targets option contains a list of
software_collection_specs for all targets specified for
the command. When the file pointed to by
SW_SESSIONS_OPTIONS is made available to other scripts,
the targets option contains the single
software_collection_spec for the targets on which the
script is being executed.
SW_SOFTWARE_SPEC [Toc] [Back]
This variable contains the fully qualified software
specification of the current product or fileset. The
software specification allows the product or fileset to
be uniquely identified.
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RETURN VALUES [Toc] [Back]
swask returns one of these codes:
0 Command successful on all targets
1 Command failed on all targets
2 Command failed on some targets
DIAGNOSTICS [Toc] [Back]
The swask command writes to stdout, stderr, and to the swask logfile.
Standard Output [Toc] [Back]
An interactive swask session does not write to stdout. A noninteractive
swask session writes messages for significant events.
These include:
+ a begin and end session message,
+ selection, analysis, and execution task messages for each
target_selection.
Standard Error [Toc] [Back]
An interactive swask session does not write to stderr. A noninteractive
swask session writes messages for all WARNING and ERROR
conditions to stderr.
Logging [Toc] [Back]
Both interactive and non-interactive swask sessions log summary events
at the host where the command was invoked. They log detailed events
to the swask.log logfile associated with each target_selection.
Command Log
The swask command logs all stdout and stderr messages to the the
logfile /var/adm/sw/swask.log. Similar messages are logged by an
interactive swask session. You can specify a different logfile
by modifying the logfile option.
EXAMPLES [Toc] [Back]
Run all request scripts from the default depot (/var/spool/sw) depot
and write the response file (named response) back to the same depot:
swask -s /var/spool/sw \*
Run the request script for Product1 from depot /tmp/sample.depot.1 on
remote host swposix, create the catalog /tmp/test1.depot on the local
controller machine, and place the response file (named response) in
the catalog:
swask -s swposix:/tmp/sample.depot.1 -c /tmp/test1.depot Product1
Run request scripts from remote depot /tmp/sample.depot.1 on host
swposix only when a response file is absent, create the catalog
/tmp/test1.depot on the local controller machine, and place the
response file (named response) in the catalog:
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swask -s swposix:/tmp/sample.depot.1 -c /tmp/test1.depot
-x ask=as_needed \*
FILES [Toc] [Back]
$HOME/.swdefaults
Contains the user-specific default values for some or all SD
options. If this file does not exist, SD looks for userspecific
defaults in $HOME/.sw/defaults.
$HOME/.sw/sessions/
Contains session files automatically saved by the SD commands
or explicitly saved by the user.
/usr/lib/sw/sys.defaults
Contains the master list of current SD options, with their
default values, for documentation purposes only.
/var/adm/sw/
The directory which contains all of the configurable (and
non-configurable) data for SD. This directory is also the
default location of log files.
/var/adm/sw/defaults
Contains the active system-wide default values for some or all
SD options.
/var/adm/sw/products/
The Installed Products Database (IPD), a catalog of all
products installed on a system.
/var/adm/sw/swask.log
Contains all stdout and stderr messages generated by swask.
AUTHOR [Toc] [Back]
swask was developed by the Hewlett-Packard Company.
SEE ALSO [Toc] [Back]
swconfig(1M), swinstall(1M), sd(5).
Software Distributor Administration Guide, available at
http://docs.hp.com.
SD customer web site at http://software.hp.com/SD_AT_HP/.
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