Comparing Packages Between Platforms

Comparing Packages Beteen Plataforms

Abstract:
When working in a clustered environment, it is often a requirement to see if the appropriate packages have been installed on all platforms in the cluster. The number of packages on a platform are many, but a simple script can be helpful.

Packaging Technology:
The industry standard packaging for UNIX systems is UNIX SVR4 packaging. Standard tools for packaging include: pkgadd, pkginfo, pkgtrans, pkgrm, pkgmk, pkgchk, pkgparam, pkgproto, pkgadm.

A long utput from the pkginfo command follows:

sun9/user$ pkginfo -l HPNP                                             

   PKGINST:  HPNP
      NAME:  JetAdmin for Unix
  CATEGORY:  application
      ARCH:  sparc
   VERSION:  D.06.15
   BASEDIR:  /
    VENDOR:  HP
      DESC:  HP Network Printer support package
    PSTAMP:  odybld3981208144215
  INSTDATE:  Aug 12 2005 08:50
    STATUS:  completely installed
     FILES:      348 installed pathnames
                   6 shared pathnames
                  32 directories
                 238 executables
               13353 blocks used (approx)

For a cursory view of a system, the pkginfo command provides basic information required for cursory consistency checks.

Simple Check:
If the identical install media is used, a simple post-install check may be desired across multiple platforms in a cluster. An sample script follows where sun1, sun2, sun3, sun4 are located on a network where temporary directories are shared via NFS and automounting is enabled.

sun1/user$ pkginfo >/net/sun4/tmp/sun1.packages
sun2/user$ pkginfo >/net/sun4/tmp/sun2.packages
sun3/user$ pkginfo >/net/sun4/tmp/sun3.packages
sun4/user$ cd /tmp

sun4/user$ nawk '   BEGIN { Pattern="%35s%35s%35s%35s\n" }
FILENAME=="sun1.packages" { sun1[$2]=$2 ; Name[$2]=$2 }
FILENAME=="sun2.packages" { sun2[$2]=$2 ; Name[$2]=$2 }
FILENAME=="sun3.packages" { sun3[$2]=$2 ; Name[$2]=$2 }
                     END  {
printf Pattern,"Common","sun1","sun2","sun3"
   for ( i in Name ) printf Pattern,i,sun1[i],sun2[i],sun3[i]
}' *.packages  sort  nawk 'NF<4' 

A simple output of 4 columns is produced, with differences.

   SMCdb       SMCdb     SMCdb                      
   SMCtk       SMCtk     SMCtk                      
  SFWatk      SFWatk    SFWatk                      
  SMCgcc      SMCgcc    SMCgcc                      
  SMCtcl      SMCtcl    SMCtcl                      
  SMCxpm      SMCxpm    SMCxpm                      
  SUNWdc      SUNWdc    SUNWdc                      
  SUNWus                            SUNWus
  TSIpgx                            TSIpgx
 SFWdbus     SFWdbus   SFWdbus                      
 SFWgtk2     SFWgtk2   SFWgtk2                      
 SMCgdbm     SMCgdbm   SMCgdbm                      
 SMCntop     SMCntop   SMCntop                      
 SMCossl     SMCossl   SMCossl                      
 SMCpcre     SMCpcre   SMCpcre                      
 SMCrrdt     SMCrrdt   SMCrrdt                      
 SMEvplr                           SMEvplr
 SMEvplu                           SMEvplu
 SUNWaac                           SUNWaac
 SUNWafb                           SUNWafb
 SUNWbdb                           SUNWbdb
...

Versioning and Integrity Checks:

In order to test for proper versions and package integrity, there are other commands which can be leveraged:

• pkgchk
  Check detailed integrity of files associated with packages, including existence, permissions, etc.
  
• pkginfo -l
  Check versioning, architecture, dates, install integrity, etc.

The package checking script can be enhanced with such scripts for more robust checking.