Flash Archive Keywords

Flash Archive keywords are like custom JumpStart, a feature of Oracle Solaris, keywords. They define elements of the installation. Each keyword is a command that controls one aspect of how the Flash Archive software installs the software on a clone system.

Use the following guidelines to format keywords and values:

Keywords and values are separated by a single equal sign with only one pair per line
Keywords are case insensitive
Individual lines can be any length

General Keywords

Each Flash Archive section is defined by the section_begin and section_end keywords. For example, the archive files section includes a section_begin keyword, though with a different value. User-defined archive sections are delimited by section_begin and section_end keywords, with values appropriate to each section. The values for the section_begin and section_end keywords are described in the following table.

Table 6-2 Values for section_begin and section_end Keywords

Archive Section	Value for `section_begin` and `section_end` keywords
Archive cookie	`cookie` – This section is not delimited by the `section_begin` and `section_end` keywords.
Archive identification	`identification`
User-defined sections	`section_name` – An example of a `section_name` keyword is X-user_section_1.
Archive files	`archive`

Keywords for the Archive Identification Section

The following tables describe the keywords for use in the archive identification section and the values you can define for them.

Every section uses the keywords in Table 6-3 to delimit each section.

Table 6-3 Archive Identification Section Keywords: General Keywords

Keywords	Value Definitions	Value	Required
`section_begin` `section_end`	These keywords are used to delimit sections in the archive and are not limited exclusively to the archive identification section. For a description of these keywords, see General Keywords.	Text	Yes

The following keywords, used in the archive-identification section, describe the contents of the archive files section.

Table 6-4 Archive Identification Section Keywords: Contents of Archive Files Section

Keywords	Value Definitions	Value	Required
`archive_id` (optional)	This keyword uniquely describes the contents of the archive. This value is used by the installation software only to validate the contents of the archive during archive installation. If the keyword is not present, no integrity check is performed. For example, the `archive_id` keyword might be `FlAsH-ARcHive-2.0`.	Text	No
`files_archived_method`	This keyword describes the archive method that is used in the files section. If this keyword is not present, the files section is assumed to be in `cpio` format with ASCII headers. This format is the `cpio` `-c` option. If this keyword is present, it has one of the following values: `cpio` – The archive format in the files section is `cpio` with ASCII headers. `pax` – The archive format in the files section is `pax` with extended `tar` interchange format. The `pax` utility enables archiving and extracting files that are greater than 4 GB. If the `files_compressed_method` is present, the compression method is applied to the archive file that is created by the archive method.	Text	No
`files_archived_size`	This keyword value is the size of the archived files section in bytes.	Numeric	No
`files_compress_method`	This keyword describes the compression algorithm that is used on the files section. If the keyword is present, it can have one of the following values. `none` – The archive file section is not compressed. `compress` – The file section is compressed by using the `compress` command. If this keyword is not present, the archive files section is assumed to be uncompressed. The compression method that is indicated by this keyword is applied to the archive file created by the archive method indicated by the `files_archived_method` keyword.	Text	No
`files_unarchived_size`	This keyword defines the cumulative size in bytes of the extracted archive. The value is used for file-system size verification.	Numeric	No

The following keywords provide descriptive information about the entire archive. These keywords are generally used to assist you in archive selection and to aid in archive management. These keywords are all optional and are used to help you to distinguish between individual archives. You use options for the flarcreate command to include these keywords. For details, see Example 3-9.

Table 6-5 Archive Identification Section Keywords: User Describes the Archive

Keywords	Value Definitions	Value	Required
`creation_date`	This keyword value is a textual timestamp that represents the time that you created the archive. You can use the `flarcreate` command with the `-i` option to create the date. If you do not specify a creation date with the `flarcreate` command, the default date is set in Greenwich mean time (GMT). The value must be in ISO-8601 complete basic calendar format without the time designator (ISO-8601,§5.4.1(a)). The format is `CCYYMMDDhhmmss`. For example, 20000131221409 represents January 31, 2000, 10:14:09 p.m.	Text	No
`creation_master`	This keyword value is the name of the master system you used to create the archive. You can use the `flarcreate` `-m` option to create this value. If you do not specify a value, the value is taken from the `uname -n` command.	Text	No
`content_name`	This keyword identifies the archive. The value is generated from the `flarcreate` `-n` option. Follow these guidelines when you create this value: The descriptive name can be no longer than 256 characters. The description should contain the function and purpose of the archive.	Text	Yes
`content_type`	This keyword value specifies a category for the archive. You use the `flarcreate` `-T` option to generate the value.	Text	No
`content_description`	The keyword value describes the contents of the archive. The value of this keyword has no length limit. You use the `flarcreate` `-E` option to create this value.	Text	No
`content_author`	This keyword value identifies the creator of the archive. You use the `flarcreate-a` option to create this value. Suggested values include the full name of the creator and the creator's email address.	Text	No
`content_architectures`	This keyword value is a comma-separated list of the kernel architectures that the archive supports. If the keyword is present, the installation software validates the kernel architecture of the clone system against the list of architectures that the archive supports. The installation fails if the archive does not support the kernel architecture of the clone system. If the keyword is not present, the installation software does not validate the architecture of the clone system.	Text list	No

The following keywords also describe the entire archive. By default, the values are filled in by uname when the Flash archive is created. If you create a Flash archive in which the root directory is not /, the archive software inserts the string UNKNOWN for the keywords. The exceptions are the creation_node, creation_release, and creation_os_name keywords.

For creation_node, the software uses the contents of the nodename file.
For creation_release and creation_os_name, the software attempts to use the contents of root directory /var/sadm/system/admin/INST_RELEASE. If the software is unsuccessful in reading this file, it assigns the value UNKNOWN.

Regardless of their sources, you cannot override the values of these keywords.

Table 6-6 Archive Identification Section Keywords: Software Describes the Archive

Keyword	Value
`creation_node`	The return from `uname` `-n`
`creation_hardware_class`	The return from `uname` `-m`
`creation_platform`	The return from `uname` `-i`
`creation_processor`	The return from `uname` `-p`
`creation_release`	The return from `uname` `-r`
`creation_os_name`	The return from `uname` `-s`
`creation_os_version`	The return from `uname` `-v`

User-Defined Section Keywords

In addition to the keywords that are defined by the Flash Archive, you can define other keywords. The Flash Archive ignores user-defined keywords, but you can provide scripts or programs that process the archive identification section and use user-defined keywords. Use the following format when creating user-defined keywords:

Begin the keyword name with an X.
Create the keyword with any characters other than linefeeds, equal signs, and null characters.
Suggested naming conventions for user-defined keywords include the underscore-delimited descriptive method used for the predefined keywords. Another convention is a federated convention similar to the naming of Java packages.

For example, X-department is a valid name for a user-defined keyword.

For an example of using options to include user-defined keywords in the archive identification section, see Example 3-9.

Skip Navigation Links
Exit Print View
	Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 Installation Guide: Flash Archives (Creation and Installation) Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 Information Library