UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi Porter,

One thing I don't understand- I redirect the stdin when I run pkgadd to install a pkg, as I want it to ignore any request for inputs from the pkg postinstall scripts (the inputs should be set to defaults):

pkgadd pkgname < dev/null

I found questions from most pkgs are ignored after the redirecting(otherwise would be asked), but one of the pkgs is still asking & taking inputs from the interactive terminal. Why?

Bluemoon

If code notices that stdin is not connected to a tty it can explicitly open /dev/tty to try and get one. Typically this is done to get passwords and the like typed in.

Code:

pkgadd

     -n    Installation occurs in non-interactive mode.  Suppress
           output  of  the  list  of installed files. The default
           mode is interactive.

I didn't use the no-interactive (-n) option because I wanted to capture the output & save them in a log file so we know if anything /file failed to get installed.
I do however suppress the interaction by using "-a" & and my own pkgadm file to overwrite the system default under /var/sadm/install/admin on my solaris.

Thank you so much for answering that question- the other pkg must be opening dev/tty explicitly - & yet, it indeed was asking for pwds.