swask(1M) swask(1M)
NAME
swask - ask for user response
SYNOPSIS
catalog] session_file] software_file] jobid] date] source] session_file] target_file] option=value] options_file] [software_selections]
target_selections]
Remarks
o This command supports operation on remote systems. See below.
o For an overview of all SD commands, see the sd(5) man page by typing on the command line.
DESCRIPTION
The command runs interactive software scripts for the software objects selected to one or more targets specified by These scripts store the
responses in a file for later use by the and commands. The and commands can also run the interactive request scripts directly, using the
option.
If the option is specified, software is selected from the distribution source. If the 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 option, stores a copy of the response file to that catalog for later use by or
Remote Operation
You can enable SD to manage software on remote systems. To let the root user from a central SD controller (also called the central manage-
ment server or IR "manager node" ) perform operations on a remote target (also called the host or agent):
1) Set up the root, host, and template Access Control Lists (ACLs) on the remote machines to permit root access from the controller sys-
tem. To do this, run the following command on each remote system:
NOTES:
o controller is the name of the central management server.
o If remote system is 11.00, make sure SD patch PHCO_22526 or a superseding patch is installed on remote system before running
o If remote system is older than 11.00 or for some other reason does not have in place, copy script from an 11.11 or higher system to
the remote system.
2) and have enhanced GUI interfaces for remote operations. Enable the enhanced GUIs by creating the file on the controller. Use this
command:
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 directly on the remote machines to grant root or non-root access to users from the con-
troller system.
Options
The command supports the following options:
Turns on verbose output to stdout.
Specifies the pathname of an exported catalog which stores the
response files created by the request script. creates the catalog if it does not already exist.
If the -c catalog option is omitted and the source is local, copies the response files into the source depot, cata-
log.
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 You can recall a session file with the option.
Reads the list of
software_selections from software_file instead of (or in addition to) the command line.
Specifies the source depot (or tape) from which software is selected
for the ask operation. (SD can read both and tape depots.)
Executes 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 session_file option.
Specifies a default set of
targets for
Sets the session
option to value and overrides the default value (or a value in an alternate option_file specified with the option).
Multiple options can be specified.
Reads the session options and behaviors from
option_file.
Operands
supports two types of operands: followed by These operands are separated by the "at" character. This syntax implies that the command oper-
ates on "software selections at targets".
Software Selections
The selections operands consist of
supports the following syntax for each software_selection:
o You can specify selections with the following shell wildcard and pattern-matching notations:
o Bundles and subproducts are recursive. Bundles can contain other bundles and subproducts can contain other subproducts.
o The software specification selects all products. Use this specification with caution.
The component has the form:
o location applies only to installed software and refers to software installed to a location other than the default product direc-
tory.
o and apply only to filesets.
o and apply only to bundles and products. They are applied to the leftmost bundle or product in a software specification.
o The <op> (relational operator) component can be of the form:
or
which performs individual comparisons on dot-separated fields. For example, chooses all revisions greater than or equal to The
system compares each dot-separated field to find matches.
o The (equals) relational operator lets you specify selections with the shell wildcard and pattern-matching notations:
For example, the expression returns any revision in version 10 or version 11.
o All version components are repeatable within a single specification (for example, If multiple components are used, the selection
must match all components.
o Fully qualified software specs include the and version components even if they contain empty strings. For installed software, is
also included.
o No space or tab characters are allowed in a software selection.
o The software can take the place of the version component. It has the form:
[instance_id]
within the context of an exported catalog, where is an integer that distinguishes versions of products and bundles with the same
tag.
Target Selections
supports the following syntax for each target_selection.
The colon is required if both a host and directory are specified.
Target Selections with IPv6 Address
The command also supports specifying the host as an IPv6 address on HP-UX Release 11i v3, as shown below:
If both the hostname and the path are specified, then the first occurrence of a slash is treated as the separator.
The IPv6 address can optionally be enclosed in a pair of square brackets and
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
Default Options
In addition to the standard options, several SD behaviors and policy options can be changed by editing the default values found in:
the system-wide default values.
the user-specific default values.
Values must be specified in the defaults file using this syntax:
The optional 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 or options:
The following section lists all of the keywords supported by the commands. If a default value exists, it is listed after the "=".
The location for SD logfiles and the default parent directory for the
installed software catalog. The default value is for normal SD operations. When SD operates in nonprivileged mode (that
is, when the default option is set to
o The default value is forced to
o The path element is replaced with the name of the invoking user, which SD reads from the system password file.
o If you set the value of this option to path, SD replaces with the invoking user's home directory (from the system pass-
word file) and resolves path relative to that directory. For example, resolves to the directory in your home direc-
tory.
o If you set the value of the 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
available at the web site.
See also the and options.
Executes the request script, if one is associated with the selected
software, and stores the user response in a file named
If the command first determines if a response file already exists in the catalog and executes the request script only when
a response file is absent.
Controls the automatic selection of prerequisite
and corequisite software that is not explicitly selected by the user. When set to requisite software will be automati-
cally selected for configuration. When set to requisite software which is not explicitly selected will not be automati-
cally selected for configuration.
The option is ignored when this option is set to
Controls the automatic selection
of the first left-most dependency in a list of OR dependencies that satisfies a requisite when another dependency in the
list that also satisfies the requisite is explicitly selected by the user.
When set to the first left-most dependency in a list of OR dependencies that satisfies a requisite is not automatically
selected when another dependency in the list that also satisfies the requisite is explicitly selected. If set to the
first left-most dependency in a list of OR dependencies that satisfies a requisite is automatically selected even when
another dependency in the list that also satisfies the requisite is explicitly selected.
This option is ignored when the option is set to
Automatically selects the latest patches (based on superseding and ancestor
attributes) for a software object that a user selects. The option can be used in conjunction with 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
Controls the handling of errors generated by scripts. If
true, stops and an error message appears. The message gives the script location and says execution cannot proceed until
the problem is fixed. If all script errors are treated as warnings, and attempts to continue operation. A message
appears giving the script location and saying that execution will proceed.
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
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 mul-
tiple processes, with each application or group of applications using a different IPD.
Caution: use a specific to manage a specific application. SD does not support multiple descriptions of the same applica-
tion in multiple IPDs.
See also the and 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 available at the web site.)
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:
No such identifiers are prepended (default).
Applies to ERROR messages only.
Applies to ERROR and WARNING messages.
Applies to ERROR, WARNING, and NOTE messages.
Applies to ERROR, WARNING, NOTE, and certain other log file messages.
Controls the amount of detail written to the logfile. When set
to 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 option.
See below and the sd(5) manual page, by typing for more information.
Defines the default log file for
Controls the log level for the events logged to the command logfile and the
target agent logfile. A value of
provides no information to the logfile.
enables verbose logging of key events to the log files.
enables very verbose logging, including per-file messages, to the log files.
Controls the time in minutes to cache and re-use the results of hostname
or IP address resolution lookups. A value of 0 disables the facility to cache and re-use lookup results. The maximum
value allowed is 10080 minutes, which is one week.
A value of:
disables the lookup caching mechanism.
is the maximum value allowed.
Used in conjunction with the
or 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.
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:
o Permissions for operations are based on the user's file system permissions.
o SD ACLs are ignored.
o 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
available at the web site.
See also the and options.
Controls the verbosity of the output (stdout):
disables output to stdout. (Error and warning messages
are always written to stderr).
enables verbose messaging to stdout.
Session Files
Each invocation of 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 This file is overwritten by each invocation of
To save session information in a different location, execute with the 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
To re-execute a session, specify the session file as the argument for the 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 take precedence over the values in the session file.
Software and Target Lists
You can use files containing software and target selections as input to the command. See the and options for more information.
Environment Variables
The environment variables that affect the command are:
Determines the language in which messages are displayed.
If is not specified or is set to the empty string, a default value of 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 vari-
able script, For example, must be set to or to make the agent and daemon log messages display in Japanese.
Determines the locale to be used to override any values for locale
categories specified by the settings of or any environment variables beginning with
Determines the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as
characters (for example, single versus multibyte characters in values for vendor-defined attributes).
Determines the language in which messages should be written.
Determines the format of dates
(create_date and mod_date) when displayed by Used by all utilities when displaying dates and times in and
Determines the time zone for use when displaying dates and times.
Environment variables that affect scripts:
Holds the path to the Installed Products Database (IPD), relative to
the path in the environment variable. Note that you can specify a path for the IPD using the default option.
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 (for example, subscripts).
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 defi-
nitions to point to the same file. A control_file can query the variable to determine which tag is being executed.
Defines the location of the product, which may have been changed from
the default product directory. When combined with the this variable tells scripts where the product files are located.
A variable which defines a minimum set of commands available for use in a control script (for example,
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 to locate the product's installed files. The configure script
is only run when is
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
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 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.
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.
RETURN VALUES
returns one of these codes:
Command successful on all targets
Command failed on all targets
Command failed on some targets
DIAGNOSTICS
The command writes to stdout, stderr, and to the logfile.
Standard Output
An interactive session does not write to stdout. A non-interactive session writes messages for significant events. These include:
o a begin and end session message,
o selection, analysis, and execution task messages for each target_selection.
Standard Error
An interactive session does not write to stderr. A non-interactive session writes messages for all WARNING and ERROR conditions to stderr.
Logging
Both interactive and non-interactive sessions log summary events at the host where the command was invoked. They log detailed events to
the logfile associated with each target_selection.
Command Log
The command logs all stdout and stderr messages to the the logfile Similar messages are logged by an interactive session. You can
specify a different logfile by modifying the option.
swagentd Disabled
If the daemon has been disabled on the host, it can be enabled by the host's system administrator by setting the entry in to and executing
EXAMPLES
Run all request scripts from the default depot depot and write the response file back to the same depot:
Run the request script for from depot on remote host create the catalog on the local controller machine, and place the response file in the
catalog:
Run request scripts from remote depot on host only when a response file is absent, create the catalog on the local controller machine, and
place the response file in the catalog:
FILES
Contains the user-specific default values for some or all SD
options. If this file does not exist, SD looks for user-specific defaults in
Contains session files automatically saved by the SD commands or
explicitly saved by the user.
Contains the master list of current SD options, with their default
values, for documentation purposes only.
The directory which contains all of the configurable
(and non-configurable) data for SD. This directory is also the default location of log files.
Contains the active system-wide default values for some or all SD options.
The Installed Products Database (IPD), a catalog of all products
installed on a system.
Contains all stdout and stderr messages generated by
AUTHOR
was developed by the Hewlett-Packard Company.
SEE ALSO
swconfig(1M), swinstall(1M), sd(5).
available at
SD customer web site at
swask(1M)