Working with appcert

To check your application with appcert, type:

appcert object|directory

• The complete list of objects you want appcert to examine and/or

• The complete list of directories that contain such objects.

If appcert is run in an environment different from the one in which the application being checked would be run, the utility may not be able to resolve references to Solaris library interfaces correctly.

The appcert utility uses the Solaris runtime linker to construct a profile of interface dependencies for each executable or shared object file. This profile is used to determine the Solaris system interfaces upon which the application depends. The dependencies outlined in the profile are compared to the Solaris ABI to verify conformance (no private interfaces should be found).

The appcert utility recursively searches directories for object files, ignoring non-ELF object files. After appcert has finished checking the application, it prints a rollup report to the standard output (stdout, usually the screen). A copy of this report is written in the working directory, which is usually /tmp/appcert.pid/Report, in a file named Report. In the subdirectory name, pid represents the 1– to 6–digit process ID of that particular instantiation of appcert. See appcert Results for more on the directory structure to which appcert writes output files.

appcert Options

The following options modify the behavior of the appcert utility. You can type any of these options at the command line, after the appcert command but before the object|directory operand.

-B

Runs appcert in batch mode.

In batch mode, the report produced by appcert will contain one line for each binary checked.

A line that begins with PASS indicates the binary named in that line did not trigger any appcert warnings.

A line that begins with FAIL indicates problems were found in that binary.

A line that begins with INC indicates the binary named in that line could not be completely checked.

-f infile

The file infile should contain a list of files to check, with one file name per line. These files are added to any files already specified at the command line. If you use this switch, you do not need to specify an object or directory at the command line.

-h

Prints usage information for appcert.

-L

By default, appcert notes any shared objects in an application and appends the directories they reside in to LD_LIBRARY_PATH. The -L switch disables this behavior.

-n

By default, appcert follows symbolic links when it searches directories for binaries to check. The -n switch disables this behavior.

-S

Appends the Solaris library directories /usr/openwin/lib and /usr/dt/lib to LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

-w working_dir

Specifies a directory in which to run the library components and create temporary files. If this switch is not specified, appcert uses the /tmp directory.