Solaris 9 Resource Manager

Solaris 9 Resource Manager provides improvements to the management of system resources. The resource manager features enable system administrators to do the following:

• Allocate computing resources on a system.

• Monitor how these resources are being used so that allocations can be adjusted if necessary.

• Generate extended accounting information on resource usage. This information can be used for capacity planning and billing.

The resource controls framework allows you to set constraints on the system resources that are consumed by processes and tasks. Tasks are collections of processes that are related to a single activity. 

Resource pools provide a way to partition system resources, such as processors, and maintain those partitions across reboots. A new fair share scheduler (FSS) has been added that allows the fine-grained sharing of CPU resources on a system. 

These features enhance your ability to manage how resources are allocated to applications in a server consolidation environment.  

In the Solaris 9 release, the full functionality is administered through a command-line interface. Performance monitoring and the setting of resource controls can also be done through the Solaris Management Console.  

For more information on resource management, see the System Administration Guide: Resource Management and Network Services and the following man pages:

• prctl(1)

• pooladm(1M)

• poolcfg(1M)

• rctladm(1M)

• project(4)

• FSS(7)

New Fixed-Priority (FX) Scheduling Class

The FX scheduler provides a scheduling policy for processes that require user or application control of scheduling priorities. The priorities of processes that run under FX are fixed. These priorities are not dynamically adjusted by the system. The FX class has the same priority range as the TS, IA, and FSS classes.  

For more information on the FX scheduler, see the Programming Interfaces Guide and the Multithreaded Programming Guide. Also see the priocntl(1) and dispadmin(1M) man pages.

For restrictions on using the FX and FSS schedulers on the same system, see "Fair Share Scheduler" in the System Administration Guide: Resource Management and Network Services.

New Display Options for the df, du, and ls Commands

The df, du, and ls -l commands have a new -h option. This option displays disk usage and file or file system sizes in powers of 1024. This display simplifies interpretation of the output of the df, du, and ls -l commands. The -h option provides disk space in Kbytes, Mbytes, Gbytes, or Tbytes if the file or directory size is larger than 1024 bytes.

See the df(1M), du(1), and ls(1) man pages for further information.

Improved Process Debugging With the pargs and preap Commands

Two new commands, pargs and preap, improve process debugging. Use the pargs command to print the arguments and environment variables that are associated with a live process or a core file. Use the preap command to remove zombie processes.

See the preap(1) man page and the proc(1) man page for information on using these commands.

Sun ONE Directory Server

The Solaris 9 release provides an integrated version of the Sun ONE Directory Server (formerly iPlanet Directory Server). The server is a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory server that is designed to manage an enterprise-wide directory of users and resources. This scalable directory service can be used for intranet applications, extranets with trading partners, and e-commerce applications to reach customers over the Internet.  

The Directory Server is managed through the Sun ONE Console, the graphical user interface that is provided with the Sun ONE Directory Server. Administrators use the Console to grant access rights, manage databases, configure the directory, and replicate the data to multiple directory servers. Users access the data through any LDAP-enabled client application, such as applications that were developed with the Sun ONE Software Developers Kits (SDKs) for C and the Java^TM programming language.

Configuration for setup of the Sun ONE Directory Server has been simplified by using idsconfig. Server and client configuration information is available in the System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (DNS, NIS, and LDAP).

See also the iPlanet Directory Server 5.1 Collection at http://docs.sun.com. This collection includes the following books:

• iPlanet Directory Server 5.1 Deployment Guide

• iPlanet Directory Server 5.1 Administrator's Guide

• iPlanet Directory Server 5.1 Configuration, Command, and File Reference

• iPlanet Directory Server 5.1 Schema Reference

The Sun ONE Directory Server 5.1 is integrated in the Solaris 9 release. For licensing terms, refer to the binary code license. 

The following name changes have been made for features in the Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE):

• Sun ONE Console (formerly iPlanet Console)

• Sun ONE Directory Server Application Integration SDK (formerly iPlanet Directory Server Application Integration SDK)

Naming Service Support for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)

Naming service support has been enhanced in the Solaris 9 release. Changes include the following:

• Simplified configuration for setup of the Sun ONE Directory Server 5.1 using idsconfig - The Sun ONE Directory Server 5.1 (formerly iPlanet Directory Server 5.1) is the LDAP directory server.

• A more robust security model - Supports strong authentication and TLS-encrypted sessions. A client's proxy credentials are no longer stored in a client's profile on the directory server.

• ldapaddent command - Enables you to populate and dump data onto the server.

• Service search descriptors and attribute mapping.

• New profile schemas.

For information on security features in the Solaris 9 release, including the Secure LDAP Client, see "Security Enhancements". For further information, see the System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (DNS, NIS, and LDAP).

NIS+-to-LDAP Migration Tools

The Solaris 9 release announces end-of-software-support for NIS+ and the move to the LDAP-based naming environment. This release includes migration tools to use for migrating from NIS+ to LDAP. For more information on the NIS+ announcement, refer to the following Web site:  

http://www.sun.com/directory/nisplus/transition.html

A detailed discussion of how to migrate from the NIS+ naming service to LDAP is included in the System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (FNS and NIS+).

In the Solaris 9 9/02 Update release, this "Transitioning From NIS+ to LDAP" appendix moved to the System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (DNS, NIS, and LDAP).

IP Security Architecture for IPv6

The IPsec security framework has been enhanced in the Solaris 9 release to enable secure IPv6 datagrams between machines. For the Solaris 9 release, only the use of manual keys is supported when using IPsec for IPv6. 

The IPsec security framework for IPv4 was introduced in the Solaris 8 release. The Internet Key Exchange (IKE) Protocol is available for IPv4.

For further information, see "IPsec (Overview)" in the System Administration Guide: IP Services.

Enhanced inetd Command

The inetd networking command has been enhanced to support the monitoring and filtering of incoming requests for network services. The server can be configured to log the client host name of incoming requests and thus enhance network security. The inetd command uses the same mechanism that is used by the Tcp-wrappers 7.6 utility. For information about Tcp-wrappers 7.6, see "Freeware".

For further information, see the inetd(1M), hosts_access(4), and hosts_options(4) man pages.

Solaris FTP Client

The Solaris FTP client has been enhanced to include support for the following: 

• Using passive mode to connect to a remote host from behind a firewall

• Restarting a failed transfer from the beginning of the transfer or from a certain offset

• Setting the TCP window size to enhance the performance of file transfers

• Detecting that the remote system is another UNIX system and setting the default transfer mode appropriately for optimized performance

For information on the ftp command, see the ftp(1) man page.

Trivial File Transfer Protocols (TFTP) Enhancements

The Solaris TFTP client and server have been enhanced to support TFTP option extensions, negotiations of the blocksize, timeout interval, and transfer size. 

For further information, see the tftp(1) and in.tftpd(1M) man pages. See also the RFCs 2347, 2348, and 2349.

Support for IPv6 Over ATM

Support for using IPv6 over Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks as specified by RFC 2492 has been introduced in the Solaris 9 release. 

For further information, see the System Administration Guide: IP Services.

Enhanced snoop Packet Capture

The snoop packet capture and display tool has been enhanced to decode and filter both AppleTalk and SCTP packets.

See the snoop(1M) man page for further information on this command.

Solaris PPP 4.0

Solaris PPP 4.0 enables a system in one location to communicate over telephone lines or leased communications media with a system at a remote location. This implementation of the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) is based on the widely used Australian National University (ANU) PPP. Solaris PPP 4.0 is entirely new for the Solaris operating environment. PPP 4.0 is easily configured through a set of files. PPP 4.0 supports synchronous communications and asynchronous communications. PPP 4.0 provides Password Authentication Protocol (PAP) and Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) authentication. Because Solaris PPP 4.0 is highly configurable, customers can easily tailor PPP to fit their remote communications needs. Also provided is the asppp2pppd conversion script for migrating from the earlier Solaris PPP (asppp) to Solaris PPP 4.0.

PPP 4.0 now includes the PPPoE feature, which enables the use of tunneling with PPP. Support for PPPoE was introduced in the Solaris 8 10/01 release. 

For further information, see the PPP section in the System Administration Guide: Resource Management and Network Services and the pppd(1M) man page.

For information on licensing terms, refer to the incorporated material at the following locations: 

/var/sadm/pkg/SUNWpppd/install/copyright

/var/sadm/pkg/SUNWpppdu/install/copyright

/var/sadm/pkg/SUNWpppg/install/copyright

Sun Internet FTP Server

Sun Internet FTP Server^TM is fully compatible with the Solaris 8 FTP software. The FTP Server offers new capabilities and new performance improvements for Solaris 9 users.

The Solaris 9 FTP Server is based on WU-ftpd. Originally developed by Washington University, WU-ftpd is widely used for the distribution of bulk data over the Internet. WU-ftpd is the preferred standard for large FTP sites. 

Extensions to the Sun RPC Library

The RPC library extensions project extends the Sun ONC+^TM RPC library with an asynchronous protocol. Programming interfaces have been added to the Transport Independent Remote Procedure Calls to provide one-way asynchronous messaging and non-blocking I/O.

For further information on ONC+ development, see the ONC+ Developer's Guide.

Enhancements to sendmail

The following new features are available in sendmail version 8.12, which is included in the Solaris 9 operating environment:

• A new configuration file, submit.cf

• New command-line options

• New and revised configuration file options

• New defined macros

• New macros that are used to build the configuration file

• New and revised m4 configuration macros

• New compile flags

• New delivery agent flags

• New queue features

• New uses for LDAP

• A method for identifying IPv6 addresses in configuration

• Changes to mail.local(1M)

• Changes to mailstats(1)

• Changes to makemap(1M)

• A new maintenance utility, editmap(1M)

The following details might be of particular interest: 

• Per RFC 2476, sendmail now listens for submissions on port 587, a feature that was added, but not mentioned, in version 8.10.

• Because the AutoRebuildAliases option is no longer available, newaliases must be run manually now in order for changes to /etc/mail/aliases to become effective. Also, because sendmail is no longer setuid root, only root can run newaliases.

For further information, see the "Mail Services Topics" in the System Administration Guide: Resource Management and Network Services. The chapters on mail services provide overview information and procedures for setting up and modifying your mail service. Also provided are procedures for troubleshooting, some background information, and details about the new features.

Version 8.10 of sendmail was first made available in the Solaris 8 4/01 operating environment. Version 8.12 of sendmail is available in the Solaris 9 operating environment.

Solaris Network Cache and Accelerator (NCA)

The Solaris Network Cache and Accelerator (NCA) has been improved with the addition of a sockets interface to NCA. With minimal modifications, any web server can communicate through the sockets interface. Web servers such as Apache, Sun ONE Web Server (formerly iPlanet Web Server), and Zeus are able to make use of NCA performance by using standard socket library functions. Also, NCA now supports vectored sendfile, which provides support for AF_NCA. Finally, the ncab2clf command has been enhanced. New options enable you to skip records before a selected date and to process a particular number of records when converting log files.

For more information about NCA, see "Managing Web Cache Servers" in the System Administration Guide: Resource Management and Network Services.

IP Network Multipathing

IP network multipathing provides your system with recovery from single-point failures with network adapters and increased traffic throughput. As of the Solaris 8 10/00 release, the system switches all the network accesses automatically from a failed adapter to an alternate adapter. The alternate adapter must be connected to the same IP link. This process ensures uninterrupted access to the network. When you have multiple network adapters connected to the same IP link, you achieve increased traffic throughput by spreading the traffic across multiple network adapters. 

In the Solaris 8 4/01 release, Dynamic reconfiguration (DR) uses IP network multipathing to decommission a specific network device. This process has no impact on existing IP users.  

The Solaris 8 7/01 release introduced the new IPMP Reboot Safe feature, which saves the IP address in the following conditions. A failed NIC is removed from the system by using dynamic reconfiguration. A reboot occurs prior to reinsertion of a functioning NIC. In these circumstances, the system attempts, but fails, to plumb an interface for the missing NIC. Rather than lose the IP address, the IPMP Reboot Safe feature transfers the IP address to another NIC in the IPMP interface group. 

For more information, see "IP Network Multipathing Topics" in the System Administration Guide: IP Services.

IP Network Multipathing DLPI Link-Up and Link-Down Notification Support

Link-down notifications enable the IP multipathing daemon to detect physical link failures faster. When a network interface is started, the IP multipathing daemon attempts to enable link-up and link-down notifications from the network interface driver. A link-down notification is generated when the interface detects the loss of the physical link to the network. A link-up notification is generated when the physical link is restored. The driver must support this feature in order for the notification procedure to work. The RUNNING flag is unset when a link-down notification is received, and set when a link-up notification is received. The IP multipathing daemon uses the RUNNING flag to monitor the physical link state.

For more information, see the IP network multipathing chapters in the System Administration Guide: IP Services.

Mobile Internet Protocol

Mobile Internet Protocol (Mobile IP) enables the transfer of information to and from mobile computers, such as laptop and wireless communications. The mobile computer can change its location to a foreign network and still access and communicate with and through the mobile computer's home network. The Solaris implementation of Mobile IP supports only IPv4.  

As of the Solaris 8 4/01 release, Mobile IP enables system administrators to set up reverse tunnels. A reverse tunnel can be set up from the mobile node's care-of address to the home agent. This reverse tunnel ensures a topologically correct source address for the IP data packet. By using reverse tunnels, system administrators can also assign private addresses to mobile nodes. 

For more information on the Mobile Internet Protocol, see "Mobile IP Topics" in the System Administration Guide: IP Services.

Mobile Internet Protocol (Mobile IP) Agent Advertisements Over Dynamic Interfaces

Dynamically created interfaces are interfaces that are configured after the mipagent daemon starts. You can now configure the foreign agent implementation to send advertisements over dynamically created interfaces. You can also enable or disable some unsolicited advertisements over the advertising interfaces.

For more information on Mobile Internet Protocol, see "Mobile IP Topics" in the System Administration Guide: IP Services.

Berkeley Internet Name Domain

An updated version of Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND) has been integrated in the Solaris 9 release. The updated version is BIND version 8.2.4. 

BIND functionality includes the following:

• In.named configuration options - See the named.conf(4) and the named-bootconf(1M) man pages.

• Extensions to the resolver()(3RESOLV) interface that are safe to use in multithreaded applications.

• The addition of the ndc command and the dnskeygen command. The ndc command is used to start or stop reconfigure in.named. The dnskeygen command is used to create TSIG and DNSSEC keys. See the dig(1M) man page for instructions on how to gather information from the DNS servers. See also the ndc(1M) and dnskeygen(1M) man pages.

For more information, see the System Administration Guide: Naming and Directory Services (DNS, NIS, and LDAP).

Networking Freeware

See "Freeware" for information about GNU wget 1.6, Ncftp Client 3.0.3, and Samba 2.2.2 in the Solaris 9 release.

• Ncftp Client 3.0.3 uses the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and is an alternative to the UNIX® ftp program.

• GNU wget 1.6 retrieves files from the Web by using HTTP and FTP.

• Samba 2.2.2 is a free SMB and CIFS client and server for UNIX and other operating systems.

Solaris Volume Manager

Solaris Volume Manager provides storage management tools. These tools enable you to create and manage RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 5 volumes, as well as transactional (logging) devices and soft partitions. Solaris Volume Manager provides all of the capabilities of Solstice DiskSuite^TM. And, Solaris Volume Manager adds the following:

• Soft partitions - Allow numerous partitions on a single drive, thus breaking the 8-slice barrier.

• Device ID support - Preserves the configuration of the Solaris Volume Manager. When you move or rearrange disks, the configuration is still preserved.

• Active monitoring of disks - Detects silent failures.

• Solaris Management Console based interface - Enables you to manage the enhanced storage devices through the same management interface that is used for other Solaris management tasks.

• The WBEM application programming interface (API) for Solaris Volume Manager - Enables standards-based management of Solaris Volume Manager from any compliant tool.

The Solaris 9 release seamlessly supports upgrading existing systems that run Solaris DiskSuite (SDS) to the Solaris Volume Manager. This upgrade does not disturb or change the configuration. Upgrades of mirrored root file systems are fully and automatically supported. 

For more information, see the Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide.

Unified diff Format

The diff and sccs-sccsdiff commands have been updated to include support for the GNU-style unified diff format. In this format, context lines are only printed once in the listing of differences.

For information on these commands, see the diff(1) and sccs-sccsdiff(1) man pages.

Generic Log Rotation Facility

A generic log rotation facility is available in the Solaris 9 release. System administrators can use this facility to maintain and rotate system and application log files. For further information, see the logadm(1M) and logadm.conf(4) man pages.

Solaris Management Console

Solaris^TM Management Console 2.1 is a GUI-based "umbrella application" that serves as the starting point for a variety of management tools. The console comes complete with a default toolbox that contains the following tools:

• System Information - Display read-only data about the host, hardware, and software.

• Log Viewer - View application and command-line messages. Manage log files.

• Processes - View, suspend, resume, and delete processes.

• Performance - Track the usage and consumption of system resources.

• Users - Set up and maintain user accounts, user templates, groups, mailing lists, administrative roles, and rights. Grant or deny rights to users and to administrative roles. These rights control access to applications and tasks.

• Projects - Constrain how resources are allocated, by processes and by tasks that run in the current project.

• Computers and Networks - View and manage computers, networks, and subnetworks.

• Patches - Manage patches on systems that run the Solaris operating environment.

• Scheduled Jobs - Schedule, start, and manage jobs.

• Mounts and Shares - View and manage mounts, shares, and usage information.

• Disks - Create and view disk partitions.

• Enhanced Storage - Create and manage RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, soft partitions, and transactional volumes. RAID 0 volumes include concatenation volumes and stripe volumes. RAID 1 volumes are mirror volumes. The enhanced storage enables the assembly of flexible storage configurations that are resistant to data loss or downtime.

• Serial Ports - Configure and manage existing serial ports.

You can add or delete tools from the default toolbox. You can create a new toolbox to manage a different set of tools by using the console Toolbox Editor.  

Diskless clients can also be managed, but only through a command-line interface. 

For further information, see the "Solaris Management Console (Overview)" in the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

Patch Manager

Patch Manager manages patches that are created for the Solaris 9 operating environment and compatible releases. You can display installed patches and their properties. You can add patches to one or more systems concurrently. You can remove patches, analyze a system's patch requirements, and download patches from the SunSolve Online service.  

The new smpatch command installs patches on a single machine or multiple machines, analyzes patch requirements, and downloads required patches.

See the smpatch(1M) man page for further information.

Solaris WBEM Services 2.5

Solaris WBEM Services 2.5 is Sun Microsystems' implementation of Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM). WBEM is a set of management and Internet-related technologies. These technologies are intended to unify the management of enterprise compute environments. Solaris WBEM Services was updated to version 2.5 in the Solaris 9 release.  

Further information is provided in "Web-Based Enterprise Management Tools".

CIM Object Manager Now Listens to HTTP Port 5988

The CIM Object Manager listens for remote method invocation (RMI) connections on RMI port 5987. And, the Object Manager now listens for XML and HTTP connections on HTTP port 5988. In the Solaris 8 release and Solaris 8 update releases, the CIM Object Manager listened for XML and HTTP connections on default HTTP port 80. 

For further information, see the Solaris WBEM Services Administration Guide.

SNMP Adapter for WBEM

The SNMP Adapter for WBEM is intended for use by system administrators. This adapter enables Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) management applications to access the system management information that is provided by Solaris WBEM Services.  

The SNMP Adapter for WBEM is used with the Solstice^TM Enterprise Agent (SEA) Master Agent. The adapter maps SNMP requests into equivalent WBEM Common Information Model (CIM) properties or instances.

The SNMP Adapter for WBEM also remaps the response from the CIM Object Manager into an SNMP response, which is returned to the management application.  

A mapping file contains the corresponding object identifier (OID), class name, property name, and Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) type for each object.  

The Solaris WBEM Services Administration Guide contains information about the SNMP Adapter for WBEM.

Solaris Product Registry 3.0

The Solaris Product Registry 3.0 includes the following new features: 

• The ability to uninstall individual system packages.

• All of the Solaris system products that you installed in their localized version appear in the "System Software Localizations" folder.

• The registry is compatible with more installation wizards.

For further information, see the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

Modify Software Groups in Solaris Web Start Program

The "Solaris Web Start" installation method was updated to enable you to modify the selected Solaris Software Group. You can add or remove software packages. 

For further information, see the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

System Administration Freeware Tools

For information about GNU grep 2.4.2 and GNU tar 1.13, see "Freeware". GNU grep 2.4.2 is a pattern matcher. GNU tar 1.13 is an archiver.

Extended File Attributes

The UFS, NFS, and TMPFS file systems have been enhanced to include extended file attributes. Application developers can associate specific attributes to a file. For example, a developer of a file management application for a windowing system might choose to associate a display icon with a file.  

Extended attributes are logically represented as files within a hidden directory that is associated with the target file.  

You can use the extended file attribute API and a set of shell commands to add and manipulate file system attributes. See the fsattr(5), openat(2), and runat(1) man pages for more information.

Many file system commands in Solaris provide an attribute-aware option that you can use to query, copy, modify, or find file attributes. For more information, see the specific file system command in the man pages. 

See also the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration for more information.

Improved UFS Direct I/O Concurrency

The performance of direct I/O is used by database applications to access unbuffered file-system data. Direct I/O improvements allow concurrent read access and write access to regular UFS files. Previously, an operation that updated file data would lock out all other read or write accesses until the update operation was completed.  

See the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration and the man page, mount_ufs(1M), for more information.

DNLC Improvements

The directory name look-up cache (DNLC) is enhanced to provide improved performance when you access files in large directories with 1000 or more files. 

The DNLC is a general file-system service. DNLC caches the most recently referenced directory names and their associated vnodes. UFS directory entries are stored linearly on disk. This means that locating an entry requires searching each entry for the name. Adding a new entry requires searching the entire directory to ensure the name does not exist. To solve this performance problem, entire directories are cached in memory by the DNLC. 

Another feature in this release is that DNLC caches file objects that have been looked up but do not exist. This feature is known as negative caching, and is useful because some applications repeatedly test to check if a file exists. 

New tunable parameters are associated with the DNLC improvements. These parameters are set optimally. Do not change the parameters casually.  

See the Solaris Tunable Parameters Reference Manual for further information.

UFS Snapshots (fssnap)

You can use the fssnap command to create a snapshot of a file system. A snapshot is a file system's temporary image that is intended for backup operations.

When run, the fssnap command creates a virtual device and a backing-store file. You can back up the virtual device, which looks and acts like a real device, with any of the existing Solaris backup commands. The backing-store file is a bitmapped file that contains copies of pre-snapshot data that has been modified since the snapshot was taken.

See the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration and the man page, fssnap(1M), for more information.

Updated mkfs Command

The mkfs command has been updated to improve performance when you create file systems. Improved mkfs performance is often 10 times faster than in previous Solaris releases. Performance improvements are seen on systems when you create both large file systems and small file systems. However, the biggest mkfs performance improvements occur on systems with high-capacity or high-speed disks.

Solaris Live Upgrade 2.0

Solaris Live Upgrade provides a method of upgrading that substantially reduces the usual service outage that is associated with an operating system upgrade. You can duplicate your current running boot environment, then while the original boot environment continues to run, you can upgrade the duplicate. The duplicate boot environment is then activated to become the active boot environment when the system is rebooted. If a failure occurs, you can quickly fall back to the original boot environment with a simple reboot. This feature eliminates the downtime for the production environment that is associated with a normal test and evaluation process. 

In addition to upgrading a boot environment, you can install a Web Start Flash archive on an inactive boot environment. When you reboot the system, the configuration that you installed on an inactive boot environment is active. 

The Solaris 9 release includes several Live Upgrade enhancements that apply to the command-line interface only. These enhancements affect the following:

• Progress Reporting

  When using Solaris Live Upgrade to upgrade or install a Web Start Flash archive, the percentage of the upgrade or install completed is reported.

• Changes to the lumount and luumount Commands

  The lumount command mounts all the boot environment's file systems. If you do not explicitly specify a mount point, lumount creates a mount point. This mount point uses the boot environment name rather than a random set of numbers, thus preventing a proliferation of mount points. This enhancement makes the luumount command easier to use.

  The luumount command unmounts the boot environment's root file system. The luumount command now accepts a mount point as well as the boot environment name. And with the -f option, a boot environment's file system can be forcibly unmounted.

  See the man pages lumount(1M) and luumount(1M).

• Scheduling Priorities

  Solaris Live Upgrade's main purpose is to minimize production environment downtime while migrating to a new operating system. Some Solaris Live Upgrade operations, such as upgrading and copying file systems, can cause significant load to a system. Solaris Live Upgrade now has the tools to control scheduling by priorities. This feature minimizes performance degradation on the production system. You can change the defaults in the /etc/default/lu file.

• Naming Boot Environments

  Solaris Live Upgrade commands allow long names for boot environments. The commands can now associate a description of any length with a boot environment name.

  For further information, see the Solaris 9 Installation Guide or the man page, ludesc(1M).

For further information on Solaris Live Upgrade, see "Solaris Live Upgrade (Topics)" in the Solaris 9 Installation Guide.

"Web Start Flash" Installation Feature

The "Web Start Flash" installation feature enables you to create a single reference installation of the Solaris operating environment on a machine. You can then replicate that installation on several machines. 

For further information, see "Web Start Flash Installation Feature (Topics)" in the Solaris 9 Installation Guide.

Web Start Flash Archive Retrieval Using FTP

The Web Start Flash program has been updated to allow you to retrieve a Web Start Flash archive by using FTP. When installing an archive, you can specify the location of an archive on an FTP server. 

For details about how to retrieve an archive from an FTP server, see the Solaris 9 Installation Guide.

Minimal Installation

Files that constitute several features in the core software group, or metacluster, are now moved into separate, more logically organized packages. You can optionally exclude these packages from the Solaris operating environment when you install the Solaris software. You can also remove these packages by using the pkgrm command after installation. See the pkgrm(1M) man page.

Files that constitute the following features are moved into new packages or existing packages:

• Cache file system

• NFS

• Kerberos security

• Distributed file system

• NIS-related

• Network routing daemons

• Remote network r* commands

• telnet server

• tftp server

• Domain name server

• DARPA name server

• Remote procedure call services

• Boot or install server

• setuid and setgid

Longer Package Names

The pkgmk utility can now be used to create packages with names up to 32 characters in length. See the pkgmk(1) and pkgadd(1M) man pages.

Installation From the Solaris DVD

You can now install the Solaris operating environment and additional software from the Solaris DVD. The DVD enables you to perform either a Solaris^TM Web Start installation or a custom JumpStart^TM installation. The Solaris DVD includes the Solaris software, ExtraValue software, and the Solaris documentation.

For detailed instructions, see the Solaris 9 Installation Guide.

Solaris "Web Start" Program Uses sysidcfg File

The Solaris "Web Start" installation method has been modified to use the sysidcfg file to configure system information during an installation or upgrade. Create a sysidcfg file with configuration information for your system. With this file in place, the Solaris "Web Start" program does not prompt you to enter the system information during installation.

For detailed instructions, see the Solaris 9 Installation Guide.

Enhancements to the Solaris "Web Start" Program

The Solaris "Web Start" installation method was updated to enable you to perform the following functions during the Solaris installation or upgrade:

• Select to automatically reboot the system after installation.

• Select to automatically eject the CD or DVD after installation.

• Select to preserve file systems.

For detailed instructions, see the Solaris 9 Installation Guide.

Additions to Time Zone Selections

The number of time zones that are available in the Solaris 9 operating environment has dramatically increased. When you install the Solaris operating environment, you can select time zones by geographic region. The time zone selections in the lists of continents and countries have been expanded. 

For detailed instructions, see the Solaris 9 Installation Guide.

Solaris "Web Start Wizards" SDK 3.0.1

Solaris Web Start Wizards^TM SDK simplifies the installation, setup, and administration of native Solaris, Java, and non-Java applications. With Solaris "Web Start Wizards" software, developers can copackage both Solaris versions and Microsoft Windows versions of their applications. The installation wizard manages the platform specifics.

The "Web Start Wizards" SDK 3.0.1 is now included with the Solaris 9 release. SDK 3.0.1 can be installed by using the Solaris "Web Start" installation program.  

New Boot Options for a Custom JumpStart Installation

New options have been added for use with the boot command when you perform a custom JumpStart installation.

With the boot command, you can specify the location of the configuration files to use to perform the installation. You can specify a path to an HTTP server, an NFS server, or a file that is available on local media. If you do not know the path to the files, you can require that the installation program prompt you for the path. The prompt displays after the machine boots and connects to the network.

The nowin option enables you to specify that the custom JumpStart program not begin the X program. You do not need to use the X program to perform a custom JumpStart installation. You can shorten the installation time by using the nowin option.

For detailed instructions about how to use these new options, refer to "Custom JumpStart Installation (Topics)" in the Solaris 9 Installation Guide.

Upgrading Mirrors

The Solaris 9 release now supports operating environment upgrades of root mirrors and metadevices that were created by the Solaris Volume Manager, formerly Solstice DiskSuite. If you are upgrading a system that has a metadevice that was created by the Solaris Volume Manager, you no longer need to edit the system's vfstab. The root mirror is detected. And the operating environment on the mirror is upgraded. This process runs just as in a typical upgrade without metadevices.

Default Routing With System Identification Utilities

The system identification utilities automatically attempt to determine the default router during installation.  

For installation information, see the Solaris 9 Installation Guide.

Configuration With System Identification Utilities

During system identification, the system identification utilities can configure systems to be LDAP clients. Prior Solaris releases allowed the configuration of a machine only as an NIS, NIS+, or DNS client.  

For installation information, see the Solaris 9 Installation Guide.

Patch Analyzer

The Patch Analyzer is now available when you use the Solaris Web Start program to upgrade to a Solaris Update release. The Patch Analyzer performs an analysis on your system. This analysis determines which patches would be removed or downgraded by an upgrade to a Solaris Update release. You do not need to use the Patch Analyzer when you upgrade to the Solaris 9 release. 

For further installation information, see the Solaris 9 Installation Guide.

Multiple Page Size Support

Multiple Page Size Support (MPSS) allows a program to use any hardware-supported page sizes to access portions of virtual memory. Previously only 8-KB pages were available for a program's stack, heap, or anonymous memory mapped with mmap().

You can use MPSS to run legacy applications with specific memory page size settings where the applications benefit from this sort of performance tuning. The use of larger page sizes might significantly improve the performance of programs that intensively use large amounts of memory.  

For more information, see the man pages pagesize(1), mpss.so.1(1), ppgsz(1), and mmap(2).

Improved Multithreading Library

This release includes an improved and faster multithreading library, which was available as the alternate libthread in previous Solaris software releases.

For further information, see the Multithreaded Programming Guide and the threads(3THR) man page.

Solaris Network Cache and Accelerator (NCA)

The Solaris Network Cache and Accelerator (NCA) has been improved with the addition of a sockets interface to NCA. Any web server can, with minimal modifications, communicate with NCA through this sockets interface. See "Networking".

Performance Improvement for Servers

Enhancements have been made to the algorithm that controls virtual pages and physical pages and how the pages are cached. These enhancements deliver increased system performance of around 10% for general user loads in servers. 

Dynamic Intimate Shared Memory (DISM)

Dynamic Intimate Shared Memory (DISM) allows a database to dynamically extend or reduce the size of the shared data segment. This feature eliminates the misconfiguration problem and denial-of-service security vulnerability of Intimate Shared Memory (ISM). 

The ISM is a shared memory segment consisting of large locked memory pages. The ISM number of locked pages remains constant or unchanged. Dynamic ISM (DISM) is pageable ISM shared memory, where the number of locked pages is variable or changeable. Therefore, the DISM supports releasing or adding more physical memory to the system during dynamic reconfiguration. The size of the DISM can span available physical memory plus disk swap. 

See the man page shmop(2).

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service enables host systems to receive IP addresses and network configuration information. This information is provided at boot time from a network server. The Solaris DHCP service has been enhanced in several ways to enable the service to support larger numbers of clients:

• The Solaris DHCP server now uses multithreading to serve multiple clients simultaneously.

• A new data store that stores data in binary files can support larger numbers of clients with faster access than with the ASCII files and NIS+ data stores.

• Access to NIS+ data storage has been redesigned. The redesign supports server multithreading.

• Data access architecture has been changed to enable third parties to write code modules that enable the DHCP server to use any data service to store DHCP data.

In addition, the Solaris DHCP server now supports dynamic DNS updates. You can enable the DHCP service to update the DNS service with the host names of DHCP clients that request a specific host name. 

The Solaris DHCP client can now be configured to request a specific host name. 

For more information, see the System Administration Guide: IP Services.

Diskless Client Management

Diskless client management is available through the command line. You can manage diskless clients, list OS services for diskless clients, and manage patches on all existing diskless clients.  

For information on diskless client management, see "Managing Diskless Clients (Tasks)" in the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

Internet Key Exchange (IKE) Protocol

Internet Key Exchange (IKE) automates key management for IPsec. IKE replaces manual key assignment and refreshment on an IPv4 network. IKE enables the administrator to manage larger numbers of secure networks. 

System administrators use IPsec to set up secure IPv4 networks. The in.iked daemon provides key derivation, authentication, and authentication protection at boot time. The daemon is configurable. The administrator sets up the parameters in a configuration file. After the parameters are set up, no manual key refreshment is required.

For further information, see "Internet Key Exchange" in the System Administration Guide: IP Services.

Solaris Secure Shell

Secure Shell allows a user to securely access a remote host over an unsecured network. Data transfers and interactive user network sessions are protected from eavesdropping, session hijacking, and intermediary attacks. Solaris 9 Secure Shell supports SSHv1 and SSHv2 protocol versions. Strong authentication that uses public key cryptography is provided. The X Window System and other network services can be tunneled safely over Secure Shell connections for additional protection. 

The Secure Shell server, sshd, supports the monitoring and filtering of incoming requests for network services. The server can be configured to log the client host name of incoming requests and thus enhance network security. sshd uses the same mechanism that is used by the Tcp-wrappers 7.6 utility that is described in "Freeware".

For further information, see the sshd(1M), hosts_access(4), and hosts_options(4) man pages. Also, see "Using Secure Shell" in the System Administration Guide: Security Services.

Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC) and Administration Tools

System administrators can improve system security by using Kerberos V5 authentication, privacy, and integrity. NFS is an example of an application that is secured with Kerberos V5. 

The following list highlights the new features of Kerberos V5.

• Kerberos V5 Server - The server includes the following components:

  • Principal (user) administration system - Includes a centralized server for local and remote administration of principals and security policies. The system includes both a GUI and a CLI administration tool.

  • Key Distribution Center (KDC) - Uses the principal database information that was created by the administration server. Issues tickets for clients.

  • Principal database replication system - Duplicates the KDC database to a backup server.

• MIT and Microsoft Windows 2000 password change interoperability - Kerberos V5 passwords can now be changed from a Solaris client to an MIT Kerberos server and Microsoft Windows 2000.

• Tuned DES - Kerberos V5 kernel DES operations have been optimized for the Sun4u architecture.

• Kerberos-encrypted communications now supported with the Solaris core - An encryption module that supports Kerberos encrypted-communications is available in the Solaris 9 operating environment. Previously, an encryption module was available only on the Solaris Encryption Kit CD-ROM or through a web download.

• Addressless tickets - System administrators and users can now specify addressless tickets. This ability can be necessary in multi-homed and NAT network environments.

• Kerberos V5 PAM module supports password aging - The pam_krb5 module supports password aging set in the KDC for each user principal.

For further information, see "Administering the Kerberos Database" in the System Administration Guide: Security Services.

Secure LDAP Client

The Solaris 9 release includes new features for LDAP client-based security. A new LDAP library provides for SSL (TLS) and CRAM-MD5 encryption mechanisms. These encryption mechanisms enable customers to deploy methods for encryption over the wire between LDAP clients and the LDAP server. 

The Sun ONE Directory Server 5.1 (formerly iPlanet Directory Server 5.1) is the LDAP directory server. For further information on this server, see "Networking".

Encryption Modules for IPsec and Kerberos

Encryption with a maximum key length of 128 bits is included in the Solaris 9 release. Prior to the Solaris 9 release, encryption modules were available only on the Solaris Encryption Kit CD-ROM or through a web download. A number of these algorithms are now in the Solaris 9 operating environment. These algorithms include 56-bit DES privacy support for Kerberos as well as 56-bit DES and 3-key Triple-DES support for IPsec.  

Support for greater than 128-bit encryption with IPsec is available on the Solaris Encryption Kit CD-ROM or through a web download. IPsec supports the 128-bit, 192-bit, or 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), and 32-bit to 448-bit Blowfish in 8-bit increments.

For information on IPsec support, see "IPsec (Overview)" in the System Administration Guide: IP Services. For information on Kerberos support, see "Introduction to SEAM" in the System Administration Guide: Security Services.

IP Security Architecture for IPv6

The IPsec security framework has been enhanced in the Solaris 9 release to enable secure IPv6 datagrams between machines. For the Solaris 9 release, only the use of manual keys is supported when using IPsec for IPv6. 

The IPsec security framework for IPv4 was introduced in the Solaris 8 release. The Internet Key Exchange (IKE) Protocol is available for IPv4.

For further information, see "IPsec (Overview)" in the System Administration Guide: IP Services.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) Enhancements

Role-based access control (RBAC) databases can be managed through the Solaris Management Console graphical interface. Rights can now be assigned by default in the policy.conf file. In addition, rights can now contain other rights.

For further information on RBAC, see "Role-Based Access Control (Overview)" in the System Administration Guide: Security Services. For information about the Solaris Management Console, see "System Administration Tools".

Xserver Security Options

New options enable system administrators to allow only encrypted connections to the Solaris X server. For further information, see "Solaris 9 Features for Desktop Users".

Generic Security Services Application Programming Interface (GSS-API)

The Generic Security Services Application Programming Interface (GSS-API) is a security framework that enables applications to protect their transmitted data. The GSS-API provides authentication, integrity, and confidentiality services to applications. The interface permits those applications to be entirely generic with respect to security. The applications do not have to check for the underlying platform, such as the Solaris platform, or security mechanism, such as Kerberos, being used. This means that applications that use the GSS-API can be highly portable. 

For more information, see the GSS-API Programming Guide.

Additional Security Software

For information about SunScreen^TM 3.2, a firewall product, see "Additional Software".

See also "Freeware" for information about the Tcp-wrappers 7.6 freeware in the Solaris 9 release. Tcp-wrappers 7.6 are small daemon programs that monitor and filter incoming requests for network services.

X11 Support for IPv6 on Solaris

The Solaris X Window System servers and client libraries now support the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6). This support is available in addition to the existing IPv4 support. This feature enables you to use IPv6 addresses and connections when displaying X applications across the network.  

Xserver Security Options

New options enable system administrators to control which transport methods are used by the Solaris X server. Administrators who need to secure a host can now disable remote TCP connections directly to the Xserver. At the same time, the administrators can allow encrypted connections to be tunneled through Secure Shell.  

See the description of the -nolisten option in the Xserver(1) man page for further details.

Xsun Keyboard Bell Option

The Xsun server can now be configured to play a tone through an audio device. This option replaces ringing the keyboard bell when a program emits a beep. By using this option, users can customize the volume, pitch, and length of beeps through the Xset program or CDE control panel. Users adjust the beep to match their hearing ability and personal preferences.  

See the description of the -audiobell option in the Xsun(1) man page for further details.

Using Xsun Server as a Display-only Device

New options enable the Xsun server to run without a keyboard or a mouse. You can run the Solaris window manager in display-only mode, without a mouse or a keyboard, in the following ways:

• As a display-only device

• As a display with alternative input devices other than a mouse or a keyboard

• Without a display to drive a frame buffer for hardware-accelerated offscreen rendering

See the Xsun(1) man page for further information.

Write CD File Systems With the cdrw Command

The cdrw command enables you to write CD file systems in ISO 9660 format. You can use Rock Ridge or Joliet extensions on CD-R or CD-RW media devices.

You can use the cdrw command to do the following:

• Create data CDs

• Create audio CDs

• Extract audio data from an audio CD

• Copy CDs

• Erase CD-RW media

Go to the following Web site for information on recommended CD-R or CD-RW devices: 

http://www.sun.com/io_technologies/pci/removable.html

See the cdrw(1) man page for information on using this command.

Improved Removable Media Management

Volume management features have been improved in this release to fully support removable media. This improvement means that the following media are mounted and available for reading on insertion:

• DVD-ROMs

• Iomega and Universal Serial Bus (USB) Zip drives and Jaz drives

• CD-ROMs

• Diskettes

With Common Desktop Environment (CDE) and Solaris command-line enhancements, you can accomplish the following:

• Format, label, and set read or write software protection on removable media with the new rmformat command. This command replaces the fdformat command for formatting removable media.

• Create and verify a PCFS file system on removable media with the mkfs_pcfs and fsck_pcfs commands.

• Create an fdisk partition and a PCFS file system on removable media on a SPARC^TM system to facilitate data transfers to IA systems.

See the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration for information on managing removable media with the command-line interface. See the Solaris Common Desktop Environment: User's Guide for information on managing removable media with CDE's File Manager.

Sun StorEdge Traffic Manager

The Sun StorEdge^TM Traffic Manager feature supports multiple paths for I/O devices such as Fibre Channel-accessible storage. This feature balances the workload across multiple devices. And, the Traffic Manager increases reliability by redirecting requests from a failed interface card or storage device to a card or device that is operational.

Sun Gigaswift Ethernet Driver

As of the Solaris 8 7/01 release, the Solaris operating environment includes support for the Sun^TM Gigaswift 1000Base-T Ethernet driver. This product enhances performance of a 1-Gbyte twisted-pair copper Ethernet link.

For further information, see the ce(7D) man page.

USB Devices

This release includes support for USB devices such as keyboards, mouse devices, audio devices, mass storage devices, and printers.  

Sun Microsystems support for USB devices includes the following: 

• Sun Blade 100 and Sun Blade 1000 systems that run the following Solaris releases support USB devices:

  • Solaris 8 10/00 release

  • Solaris 8 1/01 release

  • Solaris 8 4/01 release

  • Solaris 8 7/01 release

  • Solaris 8 2/02 release

  • Solaris 9 release

• Sun Blade, Netra^TM X1, Netra T1, and Sun Fire 280R systems that run the Solaris 9 release support USB devices.

• Sun Ray systems also support USB devices.

  For information on using USB devices with a Sun Ray system, see the Sun Ray documentation.

Using USB Mass Storage Devices

Many USB mass storage devices are supported in the Solaris 9 environment. Some non-compliant USB devices might work. Follow the information that is provided in the /kernel/drv/scsa2usb.conf file to see if a particular device can be supported.

For more information, see the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

Hot-Plugging USB Devices With the cfgadm Command

With the cfgadm command, you can hot-plug a USB device from a running system without having to shut down the system. You can also use the cfgadm command to logically hot-plug a USB device without physically removing the device. This scenario is convenient when you need to reset a USB device from a remote location.

For more information, see the cfgadm_usb(1M) man page.

USB Printer Support

You can use Solaris Print Manager to set up a USB printer that is attached to a system with USB ports. 

The new logical device names for USB printers are as follows: 

/dev/printers/[0...N]*

Therefore, when you add a USB printer to a printer server, select one of these devices for a USB printer. Select a device under Printer Port on the Add New Attached Printer screen. 

For more information on using the Solaris Print Manager to set up printers, see the System Administration Guide: Advanced Administration.

The USB printer driver in the Solaris 9 release supports all USB printer-class compliant printers. Check the list of recommended PostScript^TM printers in the usbprn(7D) man page.

For information and cautions about hot-plugging USB printers, refer to the Notes and Diagnostics sections of the usbprn(7D) man page.

Reconfiguration Coordination Manager (RCM)

Dynamic reconfiguration of system resources enables you to reconfigure system components while the system is still running. This feature has been available with the cfgadm command since the Solaris 8 release. The Reconfiguration Coordination Manager is the framework that manages the dynamic removal of system components. By using RCM, you can register and release system resources in an orderly manner.

Previously, you had to release resources from applications manually before you could dynamically remove the resource. Or, you could use the cfgadm command with the -f option to force a reconfiguration operation. This option, however, might leave your applications in an unknown state. Also, the manual release of resources from applications commonly causes errors.

You can use the new RCM script feature to write your own scripts to shut down your applications. You can write scripts to cleanly release the devices from your applications during dynamic reconfiguration. The RCM framework launches a script automatically in response to a reconfiguration request, if the request impacts the resources that are registered by the script. 

See the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration and the rcmscript(4) man page for more information.

mp Program Enhancement

In the mp(1) program enhancement, the mp command is modified to work as an X Print Server client. Configure an X Print Server running in the host machine. Then the mp command can print output in any Print Description Language that the X Print Server supports. The newly introduced options, -D and -P, can be used for making mp work as an X Print Server client.

For more information, see "Print Filter Enhancement With" in International Language Environments Guide.

New Dynamic Reconfiguration Error Messages

The dynamic reconfiguration software has been enhanced to improve troubleshooting dynamic reconfiguration problems. 

See the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration and the cfgadm(1M) man page for more information.

Compatibility of Solaris and Linux Application Programming Interfaces

Some freeware that was available on the Solaris 8 Software Companion CD is now integrated in the Solaris 9 operating environment. As a result, software application developers can now develop and compile their freeware applications more easily in the Solaris operating environment. Freeware libraries include the following:

• glib

• GTK+

• Jpeg

• libpng

• Tcl/Tk

• libtif

• libxm12

For further information about freeware that is available on the Solaris media, see "Freeware".

Choice of XML Output for Live Upgrade Messages

When using Solaris Live Upgrade at the command line, you can now choose XML output with the -X option. This option is for use when writing programs or shell scripts that use Solaris Live Upgrade as a tool. The default output is text, but with the -X option, XML that is suitable for machine parsing and interpretation is created. The output for the -X option is XML for all messages, including error, warning, informational, general.

See the man page lucreate(1M).

Multiple Page Size Support

Multiple Page Size Support (MPSS) allows a program to use any hardware-supported page size to access portions of virtual memory. Previously only 8-KB pages were available for a program's stack, heap, or anonymous memory mapped with the mmap() function.

You can tune the performance of large, memory-intensive applications to use any page size. Any page size that is supported by the hardware for stack, heap, or /dev/zero private memory mapped with the mmap() function can be used. The use of larger page sizes might significantly improve the performance of programs that intensively use large amounts of memory.

For more information, see the man pages for pagesize(1), mpss.so.1(1), ppgsz(1), memcntl(2), mmap(2), and getpagesizes(3C).

Improved Multithreading Library

The Solaris 9 release includes an improved and faster multithreading library. This library was available as the alternate libthread in previous Solaris software releases.

For further information, see the Multithreaded Programming Guide and the threads(3THR) man page.

Perl Version 5.6.1

A new, default version of the Practical Extraction and Report Language (Perl) is available in the Solaris 9 release. The new default version of Perl is version 5.6.1. Also, included in the Solaris 9 release is an older Perl version, version 5.005_03. This older verions was previously included with the Solaris 8 release. 

For further information, see the perl(1) man page.

Unified diff Format

The diff and sccs-sccsdiff commands have been updated to include support for the GNU-style unified diff format. In this format, context lines are only printed once in the listing of differences.

For information on these commands, see the diff(1) and sccs-sccsdiff(1) man pages.

Sysevent Framework

The sysevent framework enables notification of kernel-level and user-level system events to appropriate applications. Events can include hardware and software state changes, errors, and faults.

Components of the sysevent framework include the following:

• syseventd daemon

• syseventadm command

• Library APIs for event data extraction and sysevent subscription

• An interface for driver-level system event, ddi_log_sysevent

The syseventd daemon is a user-level daemon that accepts delivery of system event buffers from the kernel. After an event buffer has been delivered to syseventd, the daemon then attempts to propagate the event to all interested end-event subscribers.

The syseventadm command can be used to configure event specifications. These specifications are subsequently used to invoke commands, applications, or scripts in response to a system event.

For information on the sysevent kernel and library APIs, see the man pages syseventadm(1M), syseventconfd(1M), and syseventd(1M).

See ddi_log_sysevent(9F) for information about driver-level event notification logging.

Kernel Pseudo-Random Number Generator

The Solaris Pseudo-Random Number Generator (PRNG) is available through the /dev/random and /dev/urandom devices. PRNG provides ISVs with a standard interface to access pseudo-random numbers for cryptographic operations, scientific applications, and simulation tools. The PRNG operates in the Solaris kernel. PRNG protects the contents of the entropy pool. The PRNG gathers entropic data from kernel memory pages and maintains a high level of randomness at all times.

For further information, see the random(7D) man page.

Application Interface to Remote Shared Memory on Clusters

If you develop applications that extend the use of a Sun Cluster environment, you can benefit from this interface. Using the new Remote Shared Memory (RSM) API, you can program your applications to lower the latency for message passing over high-speed cluster interconnects. Such cluster-aware applications can significantly reduce the time that is required to respond to events in a clustered configuration.  

You must have Sun Cluster 3.0 installed. Existing Sun Cluster applications need to be modified to exploit the new interface. 

For further information, see the Programming Interfaces Guide. Also, the librsm(3LIB) man pages and the "Section 3: Extended Library Functions" (3RSM) man pages include references to RSM.

GNU-Compatible Version of the gettext() API Functions

The Solaris 9 release provides a GNU-compatible version of the gettext() API functions while maintaining backward compatibility with Solaris gettext() API functions.

• Existing functions in libc now can handle both Solaris and GNU-compatible message files. Existing functions include the following:

  • gettext()

  • dgettext()

  • dcgettext()

  • textdomain()

  • bindtextdomain()

• New GNU-compatible functions in libc can handle GNU-compatible message files. New functions include the following:

  • ngettext()

  • dngettext()

  • dcngettext()

  • bind_textdomain_codeset()

• The msgfmt and the gettext utilities now can handle both Solaris and GNU-compatible message files.

For further information, see the gettext(3C) man page.

Extended File Attributes

The UFS, NFS, and TMPFS file systems have been enhanced to include extended file attributes. These attributes enable application developers to associate specific attributes to a file. For example, a developer of a file management application for a windowing system might choose to associate a display icon with a file.  

For further information, see "File System Enhancements".

New Fixed-Priority (FX) Scheduling Class

The FX scheduler provides a scheduling policy for processes that require user or application control of scheduling priorities. See "System Resources Enhancements".

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service enables host systems to receive IP addresses and network configuration information. This information is received at boot time from a network server. Before the Solaris 8 7/01 release, DHCP configuration data could only be stored in text files or NIS+. Now, data access in the Solaris DHCP service has been redesigned to use a modular framework. Solaris DHCP provides an API that enables you to write shared objects that support any data storage facility for storing DHCP data.  

The Solaris DHCP Service Developer's Guide provides an overview of the data access framework that is used by Solaris DHCP. The guide also provides general guidelines for developers. Also included is a listing of the API functions that you can use to write a module to support a new data store.

For further information, see the Solaris DHCP Service Developer's Guide.

Solaris "Web Start Wizards" SDK 3.0.1

Solaris "Web Start Wizards" simplify the installation, setup, and administration of native Solaris, Java, and non-Java applications. With Web Start Wizards, developers can copackage both Solaris and Microsoft Windows versions of their applications. The installation wizard manages the platform specifics.  

The Web Start Wizards SDK 3.0.1 is now included with the Solaris 9 release. SDK 3.0.1 can be installed by using the Solaris Web Start installation program. 

Modular Debugger (mdb)

The mdb utility is an extensible utility for low-level debugging and editing of the live operating system. The utility can also debug system crash dumps, user processes, user process core dumps, and object files. In the Solaris 9 release, mdb provides new symbolic debugging support for the Solaris kernel and new kernel debugger commands. The mdb utility also provides new features for the examination and control of live running user processes, and the ability to examine raw disk files and devices.

The Solaris Modular Debugger Guide and the mdb(1) man page provide more information.

Audio Enhancements

New audio directories have been added to the Solaris 9 operating environment. The /usr/include/audio directory is a new directory for applications' audio header files. The audio file format has a new header file, /usr/include/audio/au.h, and man page, au(4).

The /usr/share/audio directory is a new depository for miscellaneous audio files. The audio files from the /usr/demo/SOUND/sounds directory have been moved here. A symbolic link from /usr/demo/SOUNDS/sounds to /usr/share/audio/samples/au has been created. This link enables current applications and current scripts to run without failure.

Numerous bug fixes have been made to the audio kernel modules to improve reliability. 

For further information, see the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

Vectored System Call: sendfilev()

The vectored system call, sendfilev(), enables better performance for sending data from application buffers or files. For example, in web performance, a web server can construct an HTTP response in a single system call. This HTTP response includes header, data, and trailer as well as server side includes. This feature provides optimal performance with the Solaris Network Cache and Accelerator (NCA). And, sendfilev() enables the return of multiple chunks, which might come from various files, for the response.

For further information, see the sendfilev(3EXT) and sendfile(3EXT) man pages.

Verify File Conformance With the appcert Utility

The appcert utility verifies an object file's conformance to the Solaris ABI. Conforming to the Solaris ABI greatly increases an application's probable compatibility with future releases of Solaris software.

For more information, see "Using appcert" in the Programming Interfaces Guide.

Generic Security Services Application Programming Interface (GSS-API)

The Generic Security Services Application Programming Interface (GSS-API) is a security framework that enables applications to protect their transmitted data.  

See "Security Enhancements".

Solaris WBEM Services 2.5

Solaris WBEM Services 2.5 is Sun Microsystems' implementation of Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM). WBEM is a set of management and Internet-related technologies. These technologies are intended to unify the management of enterprise computing environments. Developed by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), WBEM enables organizations to deliver an integrated set of standards-based management tools. These tools support and promote World Wide Web technology. Solaris WBEM Services was updated to version 2.5 in the Solaris 9 release. 

For further developer information about WBEM, see the Solaris WBEM SDK Developer's Guide.

New WBEM Batching API Added

The Java Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) client application programming interface (API) now supports the batching of multiple Common Interface Model (CIM) operations by a client into a single "request and response." The CIM Object Manager now accepts and services these batched requests as well. This facility is defined in the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) Specification for CIM Operations Over HTTP.

The number of remote calls that a client needs to make is consequently reduced. 

For further information, see the Solaris WBEM SDK Developer's Guide.

WBEM CIM WorkShop Enhanced

CIM WorkShop provides a graphical user interface for the WBEM development tool. CIM WorkShop can be used by instrumentation, system, and network application developers. These developers can view and create WBEM classes and WBEM instances through CIM WorkShop.  

In CIM WorkShop, you can do following: 

• View and select namespaces

• Add and delete namespaces

• View, create, modify, and delete classes

• Add and delete properties, qualifiers, and methods to new classes

• View, create, and delete instances

• View, modify, and delete instance values

• Traverse associations

• Execute methods

• Display contextual help

Enhancements and new features that are available in CIM Workshop include the following: 

• Updated and corrected contextual help.

• Ability to traverse associations.

• Ability to subscribe to and display information about events for a selected class, thus enabling you to debug applications that use events more easily. You can use this new feature only when you select the RMI protocol.

• Ability to submit WBEM Query Language (WQL) queries that search for and display WBEM information.

For further information, see the Solaris WBEM SDK Developer's Guide.

Support for WBEM Process Indication (Extrinsic) Events Added

Currently, WBEM event services enable client applications to asynchronously receive indications when conditions of interest are met. However, the only supported indications belong to the class life cycle indications. Life cycle indications denote the modification, the creation, and the deletion of an instance. 

While this class of indications is very flexible and wide ranging, instrumentation might need to publish indications that do not fall into this category. Given this requirement, the DMTF introduced the process indication hierarchy as an extension to the current indication hierarchy. The process indications for WBEM services now handle this extended hierarchy.

Process indications for WBEM services is Sun Microsystems' implementation of the process indication portion of the event model. The process indication class is the superclass of all indications that are published by instrumentation. This superclass also includes the life cycle indications. 

The process of subscribing to process indications is the same as the process of subscribing to life cycle indications. 

For further information, see the Solaris WBEM SDK Developer's Guide.

WBEM mofcomp Command Enhanced

The Managed Object Format (MOF) compiler (mofcomp) now allows you to specify a namespace on the command line. If the namespace does not exist, it is created.

In addition, the MOF Compiler now generates Java interface and class source files. This feature enables you to use standard Java interfaces rather than CIM constructs and CIM object model application programming interfaces (APIs). 

For each CIMClass, an interface and a class file are generated. The interface is generated to enable you to create different implementations while maintaining interoperability.

For further information, see the Solaris WBEM SDK Developer's Guide.

Sample Programs Are Added for New Java WBEM SDK

The Java WBEM Software Developer's Kit (SDK) now includes a new sample Java applet and sample programs. The Java applet and sample programs are installed in /usr/demo/wbem.

The Java WBEM SDK sample programs show you how to use events, queries, and batching. You can use these samples as a basis for developing your own programs. 

For further information, see the Solaris WBEM SDK Developer's Guide.

Solaris WBEM Software Developer's Kit

The Solaris Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) Software Developer's Kit (SDK) includes APIs that developers use to create applications. Based on WBEM, these applications can access data and manage resources in the Solaris operating environment. The Solaris WBEM SDK also includes CIM WorkShop. The CIM WorkShop is a Java application that developers can use to create WBEM applications. With the CIM WorkShop, developers can view the sample WBEM client and provider programs included with the software. 

For more information, see the Solaris WBEM SDK Developer's Guide.

New Solaris Providers

The new Solaris Providers enable developers to create software that gets and sets information about managed devices in a Common Information Model (CIM) environment. A Solaris Provider provides the CIM Object Manager with instances of managed resources in the Solaris operating environment. 

Five new Solaris Providers are available in the Solaris 9 software:

• WBEM Performance Monitor for Solaris devices and systems - Provides a variety of statistical information about a system on which the Solaris operating environment is running.

• WBEM Product Registry - Provides the ability to add, delete, or modify new or existing products that are installed on a system.

• WBEM SNMP Provider - Enables WBEM services to deliver information by means of the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), a protocol of the Internet reference model that is used for network management.

• WBEM EEPROM Provider - Enables the display and modification of configuration information in the EEPROM.

• Provider for WBEM System Availability - Provides reboot information about a system. This information enables applications to compute the percentage of time that a system has been up and running. This provider also supplies reasons why a system failed:

  • System panic occurred

  • System halted by a user

  • System shut down by a user

For further information, see the Solaris WBEM SDK Developer's Guide.

Frame Buffer Power Management

Some devices, such as certain tape drives and frame buffers, should not lose power, even in a power cycle, when their drivers are detached. A new interface, ddi_removing_power, checks whether or not a device loses power as a result of a suspend operation. A new property, no-involuntary-power-cycles, can be specified to ensure that the device is not powered down unintentionally.

For more information, see the ddi_removing_power(9F) and no-involuntary-power-cycles(9P) man pages.

Sun StorEdge Traffic Manager

The Sun StorEdge Traffic Manager supports multiple paths for I/O devices such as Fibre Channel-accessible storage. This feature balances the workload across multiple devices. The Traffic Manager increases reliability by redirecting requests from a failed interface card or storage device to a card or device that is operational. 

Driver Fault Injector Harness

The driver fault injector harness is a Solaris device driver development tool. The harness injects a wide range of simulated hardware faults when the driver under development accesses its hardware. The harness tests the impact of the test fault conditions on a SPARC based device driver. 

For more information, see the man pages th_define(1M) and th_manage(1M).

Generic LAN Driver

Driver developers can use the Generic LAN driver (GLD). The GLD implements much of the STREAMS and Data Link Provider Interface (DLPI) functionality for a Solaris network driver. Until the Solaris 8 10/00 release, the GLD module was available only for Solaris Intel Platform Edition network drivers. Now, GLD is available for Solaris SPARC Platform Edition network drivers.

For more information, see "Drivers for Network Devices" in Writing Device Drivers.

JavaHelp v. 1.1.2

JavaHelp^TM v. 1.1.2 is a full-featured, platform-independent, extensible help system. This system enables developers and authors to incorporate online help in applets, components, applications, operating systems, and devices. For more information, refer to the following Web site:

http://java.sun.com/products

Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition v. 1.4.0

The Java 2 SDK Standard Edition v. 1.4.0, J2SE^TM 1.4.0, is an upgrade release for Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition. The upgrade release includes new platform features, new tools, and utilities.

For full details on these enhancements, see the J2SE 1.4.0 platform documentation at the following Web site: 

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4/docs/relnotes/features.html

JSP 1.2 and Java Servlet 2.3 Support in Apache Web Server

Jakarta Tomcat 4.0.1 and a mod_jserv module have been added to the Apache Web server. This server now supports JavaServer Pages^TM, JSP Version 1.2, and Java Servlets Version 2.3.

The following files are stored in /etc/apache:

• tomcat.conf

• README.Solaris

• zone.properties

• jserv.properties

• jserv.conf

See the README.Solaris file for information on enabling Tomcat support. Also, refer to the following Web site for configuration information:

http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/tomcat-4.0-doc/index.html

Tomcat and the mod-jserv module, like the rest of Apache software, is open source code that is maintained by a group external to Sun. This group seeks to maintain compatibility with previous releases.

Xterm Terminal Emulator Support for Multibyte Character Set

The Xterm terminal emulator now supports multibyte character sets. This feature enables the use of Xterm windows in UTF-8 and other multibyte locales. The Xterm command line and resources incorporate new options to specify X font sets. 

See the Xterm man page for further information.

Graphical Workspace Manager

Graphical Workspace Manager provides the following:

• A graphical representation of all workspaces

• The ability to navigate across different workspaces with the press of a button

• The ability to drag and drop applications across different workspaces

Also, you are no longer limited to viewing nine workspaces. And, the dialogue box for Graphical Workspace Manager Options has been added to provide a number of additional display options. 

For more information, see "Graphical Workspace Manager" in the Solaris Common Desktop Environment: User's Guide.

Workspace Manager

The Workspace Manager provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for controlling behavior and the number of workspaces. You can add and delete workspaces by using a slider. You can also display the Graphical Workspace Manager in the Workspace Switch Area of the Front Panel. 

For more information, see "Workspace Manager" in the Solaris Common Desktop Environment: User's Guide.

Window List

The Window List provides a list of currently running applications. The Window List enables you, with the click of a mouse button, to locate any application, even applications in workspaces other than the current workspace. The Window List also provides the ability to perform window actions on a selected group of applications. You can choose to display or not display the Workspace column. 

For more information, see "Window List" in the Solaris Common Desktop Environment: User's Guide.

Energy Star Standards

X11R6.4 standards have been enhanced with Frame Buffer Power Management (FBPM), an extension to the Display Power Management System (DPMS). This enhancement is added to fulfill the U.S. government's requirements for the Energy Star program. This feature only works on Energy Star-compliant hardware. 

Print Format for Non-ISO-1 Files

By default, the dtlp command uses mp command before sending the output to the lp command. This feature enables many of the non-ISO-1 standard text files to be correctly printed in CDE. The same filtering effect is also applied in the printing of dtmail mail messages.

For further information, see the mp(1) man page.

Adding Multiple Files to Emails

This feature enables you to keep the "Mailer - Attachment - Add" dialog box open. You can then add two or more files to an email. The need to repeatedly select Add Files from the Attachment menu is eliminated.  

For more information on the Mailer, see "Using Mailer" in the Solaris Common Desktop Environment: User's Guide.

Removable Media Manager

Removable Media Manager centralizes access to removable devices in one window. You can format, query properties, view directory structures, and where applicable, protect and slice media. See "Removable Media Management".

See also "Using Removable Media Manager" in the Solaris Common Desktop Environment: User's Guide.

Audio Enhancements

Audio directories have been added to the Solaris 9 operating environment. The /usr/include/audio directory is a new directory for applications' audio header files. The audio file format has a new header file, /usr/include/audio/au.h, and man page, au(4).

The /usr/share/audio directory is a new depository for miscellaneous audio files. The audio files from the /usr/demo/SOUND/sounds directory have been moved here. A symbolic link from /usr/demo/SOUNDS/sounds to /usr/share/audio/samples/au has been created. This link enables applications and scripts that already exist to run without failure.

Numerous bug fixes have been made to the audio kernel modules to improve reliability. 

For further information, see the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

Desktop Freeware

See "Freeware" for information about GNU grep 2.4.2, GNU tar 1.13, GNU wget 1.6, and Ncftp Client 3.0.3 in the Solaris 9 release.

• GNU grep 2.4.2 is a pattern matcher.

• GNU tar 1.13 is an archiver.

• GNU wget 1.6 retrieves files from the Web by using HTTP and FTP.

• Ncftp Client 3.0.3 uses the File Transfer Protocol. This utility is an alternative to the UNIX ftp program.

Improved Data Interoperability

Data interoperability with non-Solaris environments has been improved in the Solaris 9 release. Additions include new iconv utilities for data conversion between UTF-8 and the following native encodings: HKSCS, GB18030, ISO 8859-11, and Hindi. Additionally, Japanese language support has been expanded through iconv modules. These modules convert between Solaris Japanese locale codesets and Japanese mainframe codesets from Fujitsu, Hitachi, and NEC.

For further information on language support in the Solaris 9 release, see the International Language Environments Guide.

New TrueType Fonts

The new TrueType fonts provide a common appearance between the codesets and offer support for the same typefaces across the codesets. The TrueType fonts are common to all European locales. Each Asian locale has its own TrueType fonts file. 

For further information, see the International Language Environments Guide.

Expanded Unicode Support

The Solaris 9 release offers broader support for Unicode. Additions include new Unicode (UTF-8) locales for Thailand, India, Hong Kong, Turkey, Egypt, Brazil, Finland, and Belgium-Walloon.  

For further information about Unicode support in the Solaris 9 release, see the International Language Environments Guide.

Print Filter Enhancement - the mp Program

The mp program accepts international text files from various Solaris locales. The program produces output for the specified locale. Because the complex text layout (CTL) is supported in the mp program, the output contains proper text layout, such as bidirectional text rendering and shaping. Depending on the mp system font configuration for each locale, the PostScript output file can contain glyph images from Solaris system-resident scalable or bitmap fonts.

For more information, see "Print Filter Enhancement With" in the International Language Environments Guide.

New iconv Modules

iconv modules enable conversion between native encoded data and Unicode. The following new iconv modules have been added to support new character sets:

• UTF-8 <---> HKSCS

• UTF-8 <---> GB18030

• UTF-8 <---> ISO8859-11

• UTF-8 <---> Hindi

Enhanced Conversion of Dtpad File Open/Save Codeset

Enhancements include the addition of an "encoding" option to the File Open/Save dialog box. This option supports file encoding changes with the iconv utility. This option enables users to open or save files in various encodings, such as UTF-8 and UTF-16.

See the iconv(3C) man page.

Support for the New Chinese GB18030-2000 Character Set

The Solaris platform enables input, display, and print for the entire GB18030-2000 character set, including nearly 30,000 characters. Any application that runs on the Solaris platform can thus benefit from a wider set of Chinese characters. These glyphs are primarily Han characters, but the encoding also includes glyphs for minority languages such as Tibetan, Wei, Yi, and Mongolian.

GB18030-2000 support in the Solaris 9 release also includes backward compatibility to previous Chinese codesets, GBK and GB2312. Conversion to other codesets such as Unicode is also included. Solaris developers do not need to change their procedures to access this new encoding support. Standard toolkits can use the new support.

For Java applications that need GB18030-2000 support, review J2SE at the following Web site:

http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4

New zh_CN.GB18030 Locale Enhanced From zh_CN.GBK

This new zh_CN.GB18030 locale is provided to support the new GB18030 standard encoding. This encoding is required by a law that the Chinese government has enacted.

New Chinese and Korean Collation Locales

Collation locales provide different collation options to users, such as stroke count and radical, phonetic, and dictionary options. 

Wordbreaker Modules for Thai

The wordbreaker module is used to correctly break the Thai text into proper paragraphs, sentences, and words within Motif. 

New Asian UTF-8 (Unicode) Locales

The File System Safe Universal Transformation Format, or UTF-8, is an encoding that is defined by X/Open® as a multibyte representation of Unicode. UTF-8 encompasses almost all of the characters for traditional single-byte and multibyte locales for European and Asian languages for Solaris locales.

• th_TH.UTF-8 locale is the Unicode locale for Thailand.

• hi_IN.UTF-8 locale is the Unicode locale for India.

• zh_HK.UTF-8 locale is the Unicode locale for Hong Kong, China.

New Thai Input Method

The new Thai input method supports the Thai input standard. The Thai input standard, the WIT, is specified by the Thai government. The WIT has three levels: level 0, level 1, and level 2. 

New Chinese Input Methods

More popular, powerful input methods (IM) in the Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese locales have been added for new character sets and new locales: 

• New Chuyin IM for Traditional Chinese locales

• Cantonese IM for all Chinese locales

• English-Chinese IM for all Chinese locales

New Auxiliary Window for Chinese Input Methods

The Auxiliary window provides a user interface (UI) for input methods. The UI is "friendly" and extensible for all Chinese locales. New functions that are supported by the auxiliary window are as follows: 

• Input method switching

• Input method properties configuration

• Look-up tables for GB2312, GBK, GB18030, HKSCS, CNS, Big-5, and Unicode character sets

• Code table management tool

• A visual keyboard

New zh_HK.BIG5HK Locale to Support HKSCS for Hong Kong, China

The new zh_HK.BIG5HK locale is provided to support the Hong Kong Supplementary Character Set (HKSCS). The HKSCS is a supplementary character set of the Big-5 and ISO 10646 coding schemes. HKSCS contains Chinese characters that are needed in Chinese computing in Hong Kong. However, these characters are not contained in either the Big-5 or ISO 10646 standard character sets.

Additional Japanese iconv Modules

Additional Japanese language support includes iconv code conversions between Solaris Japanese locale codesets and Japanese mainframe codesets. Japanese locale codesets include eucJP, PCK, and UTF-8. Japanese mainframe codesets include Fujitsu JEF, Hitachi KEIS, and NEC JIPS.

New European and Middle Eastern Keyboard Support

The Solaris 9 release has added Sun I/O keyboard support for TurkeyQ, TurkeyF, and Arabic. Also, support is added for the Sun Ray USB keyboard for TurkeyQ, TurkeyF, Belgian, and Arabic.  

For further information, see the International Language Environments Guide.

New Unicode (UTF-8) Locales for Europe and the Middle East

For the Solaris 8 10/00 release, Russian, Polish, and two new locales for Catalan were added to the European and Middle Eastern locales. For the Solaris 8 4/01 release, two additional languages, Turkish UTF-8 Codeset and Russian UTF-8 Codeset, were added. 

In the Solaris 9 release, European and Middle Eastern language support also includes the addition of UTF-8 locales for Turkey, Egypt, Brazil, Finland, and Belgium-Walloon.  

The locale names are as follows: 

• ca_ES.ISO8859-1 locale is a Unicode locale for Spain (Catalan).

• ca_ES.ISO8859-15 locale is an additional Unicode locale for Spain (Catalan).

• pl_PL.UTF-8 locale is the Unicode locale for Poland.

• ru_RU.UTF-8 locale is the Unicode locale for Russia.

• tr_TR.UTF-8 locale is the Unicode locale for Turkey.

• ar_EG.UTF-8 locale is the Unicode locale for Egypt.

• pt_BR.UTF-8 locale is the Unicode locale for Brazil.

• fi_FI.UTF-8 locale is the Unicode locale for Finland.

• fr_BE.UTF-8 locale is the Unicode locale for Belgium-Walloon.

Euro Default Currency Support

The following locales have changed from their national currency unit (NCU) to the euro currency glyph:

• ca_ES.ISO8859-15 (Spain)

• de_AT.ISO8859-15 (Austria)

• de_DE.ISO8859-15 (Germany)

• de_DE.UTF-8 (Germany)

• en_IE.ISO8859-15 (Ireland)

• es_ES.ISO8859-15 (Spain)

• es_ES.UTF-8 (Spain)

• fr_BE.ISO8859-15 (Belgium)

• fr_BE.UTF-8 (Belgium)

• fi_FI.ISO8859-15 (Finland)

• fi_FI.UTF-8 (Finland)

• fr_FR.ISO8859-15 (France)

• fr_FR.UTF-8 (France)

• it_IT.ISO8859-15 (Italy)

• it_IT.UTF-8 (Italy)

• nl_BE.ISO8859-15 (Belgium)

• nl_NL.ISO8859-15 (Netherlands)

• pt_PT.ISO8859-15 (Portugal)

ExtraValue Directory

The Solaris 9 software release includes an ExtraValue directory that contains two subdirectories, CoBundled and Early Access. The CoBundled directory contains software that previously shipped separately, such as SunScreen 3.2 and Web Start Wizards SDK 3.0.1. The Early Access directory contains preliminary evaluation software, such as Netscape 6.2.1.  

In the Solaris 9 9/02 Update release, Netscape is located in the CoBundled directory.

The CoBundled and Early Access directories are in the Solaris_9 directory at Solaris_9/ExtraValue/EarlyAccess and Solaris_9/ExtraValue/CoBundled. The directories are located on the Solaris 9 DVD and the Solaris Software 2 of 2 CD.

For further information about Web Start Wizards, see "Installation".

SunScreen 3.2

SunScreen 3.2 is a stateful, dynamic, packet-filtering firewall that offers high-speed protection to your Solaris server. Some of the features of SunScreen 3.2 are as follows:

• 130 multithreaded stateful packet filters

• Network address translation

• SKIP and IPsec and IKE VPN client support

• Ordered rule sets

• Multiple firewall management

• A Java applet GUI

• Complete command-line control

SunScreen 3.2 offers stealth mode, operating without any visible IP address. SunScreen also offers a traditional routing mode, with each interface protecting individual subnets. Sun recommends that customers deploy firewalls in multiple points throughout their network architecture, including on individual hosts and servers. 

Netscape 6.2.1 for the Solaris Operating Environment

Netscape 6.2.1 Enterprise, the most customizable, convenient, and connected browser, is available in the Early Access directory for the Solaris 9 release. In addition, Netscape 6.2.1 is available for the Solaris 7 and Solaris 8 operating environments. Netscape 6.2.1 is the first Internet software to seamlessly integrate browsing, email, and instant messaging. 

Netscape 6.2.1 includes the following new features:

• Improvements to installation and ease of use

• More industry standards - Including XML, LDAP, Document Object Model (DOM), and Cascading Style Sheets level 1 (CSS1)

• My Sidebar feature - For quick retrieval of important information

• Advanced search capabilities

• Real-time messaging - Integrated with browsing and mail

• Options for personalization

• The following software:

  • The latest Java virtual machine

  • A new Netscape Java Plug-In

  • Java extensions and APIs

  • A cross-platform, Java technology-based XPCOM component that delivers reliable interoperability

Further information is available at the following Web site:  

http://www.sun.com/solaris/netscape

In the Solaris 9 9/02 Update release, Netscape is located in the CoBundled directory. Netscape 6.2.3 is provided in this release.

Updated Freeware Packages

Several freeware tools and libraries are included in the Solaris 9 release. The following freeware packages have been updated for the Solaris 9 release: 

To view license terms, attribution, and copyright statements for freeware in this list, the default license path is /usr/share/src/<freeware name>. If the Solaris operating environment has been installed anywhere other than the default, modify the given path to access the file at the installed location.

• Apache 1.3.20 - UNIX based HTTP server

• bash 2.05 - Sh-compatible command language interpreter

• bzip2 1.0.1 - Block-sorting file compressor

• gzip 1.3 - GNU Zip compression utility

• less 358 - A pager, similar to the more command

• mkisofs 1.13 - A utility that builds a CD image by using an ISO 9660 file system

• tcsh 6.0.10 - C shell with file-name completion and command-line editing

• zip 2.3 - Compression and file-packaging utility

• zsh 3.0.8 - Command interpreter (shell) usable as an interactive login shell and as a shell script command processor

Freeware Libraries

The following libraries have also been included in the Solaris 9 release: 

To view license terms, attribution, and copyright statements for the freeware libraries in this list, the default license path is /usr/sfw/share/src/<freeware name>. If the Solaris operating environment has been installed anywhere other than the default, modify the given path to access the file at the installed location.

• Glib 1.2.10 - A library of useful data types, macros, type conversions, string utilities, and a lexical scanner.

• GTK+ 1.2.10 - The GIMP toolkit. A set of libraries that can be used to create graphical user interfaces.

• Jpeg 6b - Standardized compression software for full-color and gray-scale images.

• Libpng 1.0.10 - PNG reference library. PNG is a format for storing images. This format is designed to be the successor to the GIF format and, to some extent, the more complex TIFF format.

• Tcl/tk 8.33 - TCL-TK GUI Toolkit is an Xqq toolkit that is implemented with the Tcl scripting language.

• Libtif f3.55 - Provides support for reading and writing TIFF and a small collection of tools for doing simple manipulations of TIFF images.

• Libxml2 2.3.6 - A C library that provides Extensible Markup Language (XML) support. XML is the universal format for structured documents and data on the web.

Freeware Commands and Utilities

The following commands and utilities have also been included in the Solaris 9 release: 

To view license terms, attribution, and copyright statements for the freeware commands and utilities in this list, the default license path is /usr/sfw/share/src/<freeware name>. If the Solaris operating environment has been installed anywhere other than the default, modify the given path to access the file at the installed location.

• Gnu Grep 2.4.2 - A pattern matcher that is twice as fast as the standard UNIX egrep utility.

• Gnu Tar 1.13 - An archiver that includes multivolume support, the ability to archive sparse files, automatic archive compression and decompression, remote archives, and other special features.

• Ncftp Client 3.0.3 - A free set of programs that use the File Transfer Protocol. This set is an alternative to the standard ftp program that comes with UNIX systems.

• Samba 2.2.2 - The free SMB and CIFS client and server for UNIX and other operating systems. SMB and CIFS are protocols by which many PC-related machines share files, printers, and other information.

• Tcp-wrappers 7.6 - Small daemon programs that monitor and filter incoming requests for network services. These programs log the client host name of incoming requests and thus enhance network security.

• Gnu Wget 1.6 - A free network utility to retrieve files from the Web by using HTTP and FTP, the two most widely used Internet protocols.

Accessibility Software - For special needs users, Open Source assistive software such as Emacspeak, the W3 browser, and UnWindows.

Administration Tools - System administration tools, such as ethereal, sudo, and rpm.

Web Infrastructure Software - Server software (daemons) for hosting web and Internet services.

Desktop Environment and X Window Managers - Software that provides the graphical user interface for launching applications, file management, drag-and-drop icons, and so on. Several Window Manager packages are included as well as the K-Desktop Environment.

Desktop Applications - Graphical desktop applications, including productivity and multimedia software.

Command-line Tools and Utilities - Command-line utilities and tools such as the *utils packages from the GNU project.

Editors - Applications that are used for writing text documents and software programs.

Security Tools - Tools for system and network security monitoring and detection, such as snort, nmap, and tcpdump.

Messaging Software - Client-side applications and tools for email, WWW, news, and chat.

Languages - The gcc compiler and several high-level (scripting) programming languages.

Developer Libraries - Collections of libraries with software routines for developers.

Developer Tools - Tools for software developers, such as autoconf, automake, and cvs.

GNOME 2.0 Desktop for the Solaris Operating Environment

GNOME 2.0 is an advanced user desktop that is planned for inclusion in the Solaris 9 operating environment. GNOME 2.0 is designed to integrate seamlessly with the Internet. GNOME 2.0 provides a user experience that increases personal productivity. Built on free source software, GNOME is evolving into a standard across multiple UNIX platforms. 

The GNOME 2.0 desktop provides powerful new features, which include:

• Built-in accessibility solutions that enable users with disabilities to interact with the desktop

• Attractive, intuitive user interface

• Comprehensive personalization capabilities

• Integrated global Internet resources

• Advanced workspace manager

• Convenient front panel for rapid access to favorite programs

• Full suite of applications and accessories

• Latest industry standards to ensure seamless data interchange and interoperability

• Compatibility with existing CDE and Java based applications

Early Preview of the GNOME Desktop - Sun has made "Exploring the GNOME 1.4 Desktop," available for free download at http://www.sun.com/gnome. The free download enables you to explore and evaluate the capabilities of the GNOME 2.0 desktop. This desktop will be supported and distributed with future versions of the Solaris operating environment.