Documentation Issues

Federated Naming Service Programming Guide

Solaris 7 Software Developer Collection

The Federated Naming Service Programming Guide is not included in the Solaris 7 Software Developer Collection (SUNWabsdk package) on the Solaris 7 Documentation CD. The Guide may be found in the Solaris 7 Software Developer Collection on http://docs.sun.com.

OpenBoot PROM boot Command Behavior (4181145)

In Solaris 7, the boot(1m) reference manual page does not document the fact that the existing boot-file or diag-file settings are ignored by the PROM if any filename or boot arguments are specified on the boot command line. Generally, the OpenBoot boot command takes arguments of the following form:

ok book [device-specifier] [arguments] 

The default boot command has no arguments. If no device-specifier is given on the boot command line, OpenBoot uses the boot-device or diag-device nvram variable. If no optional arguments are given on the command line, OpenBoot uses the boot-file or diag-file nvram variable as default boot arguments.

Arguments may include more than one string. All argument strings are passed to the secondary booter; they are not interpreted by OpenBoot. If any arguments are specified on the boot command line, then neither the boot-file nor the diag-file nvram variable is used. The contents of the nvram variables are not merged with command line arguments.

This behavior is found on most OpenBoot 2.x and 3.x based systems. Note that differences may occur on some platforms.

Workaround: Since the contents of boot-file or diag-file may be ignored depending on the form of the boot command used, reliance upon the boot-file should be discouraged for most production systems.

To change the OS policy, change the policy file. In most cases, it is best to allow the boot command to choose an appropriate default based on the system type, system hardware and firmware, and on what is installed on the root file system. It is accepted practice to augment the boot command's policy by modifying the policy file; however, changing boot-file or diag-file may generate unexpected results in certain circumstances.