flarcreate(1M)															    flarcreate(1M)

NAME

       flarcreate - create a flash archive from a master system

SYNOPSIS

       flarcreate -n name [-R root] [-A system_image] [-H] [-I] [-M] [-S] [-c] [-t [-p posn] [-b blocksize]] [-i date] [-u section...] [-m master]
       [-f  [filelist | -] [-F]] [-a author] [-e descr |  -E  descr_file]  [-T	type]  [-U  key=value...]  [-x	exclude...]  [-y  include...]  [-z
       filelist...] [-X filelist...] archive

       The  flarcreate command creates a flash archive from a master system. A master system is one that contains a reference configuration, which
       is a particular configuration of the Solaris operating environment, plus optional other software. A  flash  archive  is	an  easily  trans-
       portable version of the reference configuration.

       In  flash  terminology,	a  system on which an archive is created is called a master. The system image stored in the archive is deployed to
       systems that are called clones.

       There are two types of flash archives: full and differential. A full archive contains all the files that are in a system image. A differen-
       tial  archive  contains	only  differences  between  two system images. Installation of a differential archive is faster and consumes fewer
       resources than installation of a full archive.

       In creating a differential archive, you compare two system images. A system image can be any of:

	 o  a Live Upgrade boot environment, mounted on some directory using lumount(1M) (see live_upgrade(5))

	 o  a clone system mounted over NFS with root permissions

	 o  a full flash archive expanded into some local directory

       To explain the creation of a differential flash archive, the following terminology is used:

       old		       The image prior to upgrade or other modification. This is likely the image as it was installed on clone systems.

       new		       The old image, plus possible additions or changes and minus possible deletions. This is likely the image  you  want
			       to duplicate on clone systems.

       The flarcreate command compares old and new, creating a differential archive as follows:

	 o  files on new that are not in old are added to the archive;

	 o  files of the same name that are different between old and new are taken from new and added to the archive;

	 o  files  that  are in old and not in new are put in list of files to be deleted when the differential archive is installed on clone sys-
	    tems.

       When creating a differential flash archive, the currently running image is, by default, the new image and a second  image,  specified  with
       the  -A option, is the old image. You can use the -R option to designate an image other than the currently running system as the new image.
       These options are described below.

       Following creation of a flash archive, you can use JumpStart to clone the archive on multiple systems.

       You can run flarcreate in multi- or single-user mode. You can also use the command when the master system is booted from the first  Solaris
       software CD or from a Solaris net image.

       Archive	creation  should  be  performed  when  the  master system is in as stable a state as possible. Following archive creation, use the
       flar(1M) command to administer a flash archive.

       See flash_archive(4) for a description of the flash archive.

       The flarcreate command requires root privileges.

       The flarcreate command has one required argument:

       -n name		       Specifies the name of the flash archive. name is supplied as the value of the content_name keyword.  See  flash_ar-
			       chive(4).

       The flarcreate command has the following general options:

       -A system_image	       Create  a  differential	flash  archive by comparing a new system image (see ) with the image specified by the sys-
			       tem_image argument. By default, the new system image is the currently running system. You can  change  the  default
			       with  the -R option, described below. system_image is a directory containing an image. It can be accessible through
			       UFS, NFS, or lumount(1M).

			       The rules for inclusion and exclusion of files in a differential archive are described in  .  You  can  modify  the
			       effect of these rules with the use of the -x, -X, -y, and -z options, described below.

       -c		       Compress the archive using compress(1)

       -f filelist	       Use  the  contents  of filelist as a list of files to include in the archive. The files are included in addition to
			       the normal file list, unless -F is specified (see below). If filelist is -, the list is taken from standard input.

       -F		       Include only files in the list specified by -f. This option makes -f filelist an absolute list, rather than a  list
			       that is appended to the normal file list.

       -H		       Do not generate hash identifier.

       -I		       Ignore  integrity  check.  To prevent you from excluding important system files from an archive, flarcreate runs an
			       integrity check. This check examines all files registered in a system package database and stops  archive  creation
			       if any of them are excluded. Use this option to override this integrity check.

       -M		       Used only when you are creating a differential flash archive. When creating a differential archive, flarcreate cre-
			       ates a long list of the files in the system that remain the same, are changed, and are to be deleted on clone  sys-
			       tems.  This list is stored in the manifest section of the archive (see flash_archive(4)). When the differential ar-
			       chive is deployed, the flash software uses this list to perform a file-by-file check, ensuring the integrity of the
			       clone  system. Use of this option to avoids such a check and saves the space used by the manifest section in a dif-
			       ferential archive. However, you must weigh the savings in time and disk space against  the  loss  of  an  integrity
			       check upon deployment. Because of this loss, use of this option is not recommended.

       -R root		       Create  the archive from the file system tree rooted at root. If you do not specify this option, flarcreate creates
			       an archive from a file system rooted at /.

			       Note -  The root file system of any non-global zones must not be referenced with the -R option. Doing so might dam-
				       age  the  global zone's file system, might compromise the security of the global zone, and might damage the
				       non-global zone's file system. See zones(5).

       -S		       Skip the disk space check and do not write archive size data to the archive. Without -S, flarcreate builds  a  com-
			       pressed	archive  in  memory  before  writing the archive to disk, to determine the size of the archive.  This size
			       information is written to the header of the archive in the files_archived_size field and  is  used  during  archive
			       deployment  on  the  client  to	ensure enough disk space is available on the client. Use -S to skip this step. The
			       result of the use of -S is a significant decrease in the time it takes to create an archive.

       -U key=value...	       Include the user-defined keyword(s) and values in the archive identification section.

       -x exclude...	       Exclude the file or directory exclude from the archive. Note that the exclude file or directory is  assumed  to	be
			       relative to the alternate root specified using -R. If the parent directory of the file exclude is included with the
			       -y option (see -y include), then only the specific file or directory specified by exclude is excluded.  Conversely,
			       if the parent directory of an included file is specified for exclusion, then only the file include is included. For
			       example, if you specify:

			       -x /a -y /a/b

			       all of /a except for /a/b is excluded. If you specify:

			       -y /a -x /a/b

			       all of /a except for /a/b is included.

       -y include...	       Include the file or directory include in the archive. Note that the exclude file or directory is assumed to be rel-
			       ative  to  the alternate root specified using -R. See the description of the -x option, above, for a description of
			       the interaction of the -x and -y options.

       -X filelist...	       Use the contents of filelist as a list of files to exclude from the archive. If filelist is -, the  list  is  taken
			       from standard input.

       -z filelist...	       filelist  is a list of files prefixed with a plus (+) or minus (-). A plus indicates that a file should be included
			       in the archive; the minus indicates exclusion. If filelist is -, the list is taken from standard input.

       Use the following option with user-defined sections.

       -u section...	       Include the user-defined section located in the file section in the archive. section must be a blank-separated list
			       of section names as described in flash_archive(4).

       Use the following options with tape archives.

       -b blocksize	       The block size to be used when creating the archive. If not specified, a default block size of 64K is used.

       -p posn		       Used only with -t. Specifies the position on the tape device where the archive should be created. If not specified,
			       the current position of the tape device is used.

       -t		       Create an archive on a tape device. The archive operand (see ) is assumed to be the name of the tape device.

       The following options are used for archive identification.

       -a author	       author is used to provide an author name for the archive identification section. If  you  do  not  specify  -a,	no
			       author name is included in the identification section.

       -e descr 	       The  description  to be included in the archive as the value of the content_description archive identification key.
			       This option is incompatible with -E.

       -E descr_file	       The description to be used as the value of the archive identification content_description key is retrieved from the
			       file descr_file. This option is incompatible with -e.

       -i date		       By  default,  the value for the creation_date field in the identification section is generated automatically, based
			       on the current system time and date. If you specify the -i option, date is used instead.

       -m master	       By default, the value for the creation_master field in the identification section is the  name  of  the	system	on
			       which you run flarcreate, as reported by uname -n. If you specify -m, master is used instead.

       -T type		       Content	type  included	in  the archive as the value of the content_type archive identification key. If you do not
			       specify -T, the content_type keyword is not included.

       The following operand is supported:

       archive

	   Path to tape device if the -t option was used. Otherwise, the complete path name of a flash archive. By convention, a file containing a
	   flash archive has a file extension of .flar.

       The following exit values are returned:

       0	Successful completion.

       >0	An error occurred.

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Availability		     |SUNWinst			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

       flar(1M), flash_archive(4), attributes(5)

								    6 Apr 2005							    flarcreate(1M)