Differences Between $PKG_INSTALL_ROOT and $BASEDIR Overview

$PKG_INSTALL_ROOT is the location of the root (/) file system of the machine to which you are adding the package. The location is set to the -R argument of the pkgadd command. For example, if the following command is invoked, then $PKG_INSTALL_ROOT becomes /a during the installation of the package.

# pkgadd -R /a SUNWvxvm

$BASEDIR points to the relocatable base directory into which relocatable package objects are installed. Only relocatable objects are installed here. Nonrelocatable objects (those that have absolute paths in the pkgmap file) are always installed relative to the inactive boot environment, but not relative to the $BASEDIR in effect. If a package has no relocatable objects, then the package is said to be an absolute package (or nonrelocatable), and $BASEDIR is undefined and not available to package procedure scripts.

For example, suppose a package's pkgmap file has two entries:

1 f none sbin/ls 0555 root sys 3541 12322 1002918510
1 f none /sbin/ls2 0555 root sys 3541 12322 2342423332

The pkginfo file has a specification for $BASEDIR:

BASEDIR=/opt

If this package is installed with the following command, then ls is installed in /a/opt/sbin/ls, but ls2 is installed as /a/sbin/ls2.

# pkgadd -R /a SUNWtest