Installing the Answerbook2 Server

The AnswerBook2 product is Sun Microsystems' online documentation system. It uses a browser interface to view, print, and search the documentation.

To view the SEAS online documentation, you must have access to an Answerbook2 documentation server. The AnswerBook2 documentation server enables you to view Sun documentation using your favorite browser. It renders documentation in 3.2-compliant HTML, sending it to a browser for display; it also supports the previous AnswerBook^TM documentation format. The AnswerBook2 documentation server software is included on the SEAS documentation CD and on the Solaris 7 documentation CD.

For occasional viewing of the SEAS document collections, you need not install the AnswerBook2 documentation server software. Instead, you can run it directly off the SEAS documentation CD using the ab2cd script. For detailed information about this feature, see the README on the SEAS documentation CD. For this, you must have root access to the system on which the CD is connected.

However, to provide your users with access to the documentation of the SEAS products, it is necessary to install the AnswerBook2 documentation server software. Once you have installed the SEAS server software, you must install the SEAS documentation on that server. For information on installing the server software and documentation included on the SEAS documentation CD, see the README file on that CD. For general information about using the AnswerBook2 product, see the module "Accessing Online Documentation" in the Solaris 7 (SPARC Platform Edition) Installation Library or the Solaris 7 (Intel Platform Edition) Installation Library.

If you do not have access to an AnswerBook2 document server or do not want to install it locally, you can view all released Solaris documentation at the http://docs.sun.com Web site.

How to Run the Answerbook2 Server From the SEAS Documentation CD

Be aware that running the document server directly from the CD is slow. As such, it is not recommended that you use this approach if you expect other users to access the SEAS document collections.

1. Log in as root.

2. Change directory, or bring up File Manager, and go to the location containing the executable ab2_cd script.

3. Run the ab2_cd command.

4. Access the documentation server using the following URL: http://localhost:8888

   where localhost is the name of the machine to which the CD is attached.

5. To stop running the server from the CD, run the ab2_cd stop command.

How to Install the AnswerBook2 Documentation Server

1. Insert the SEAS documentation CD in the CD-ROM drive.

2. Log in as root on the documentation server machine and change directory to the location of the installation packages.

3. At the system prompt, start the Product Registry by typing:

   prodreg &

4. Click Install at the bottom of the Product Registry Window.

5. Locate the AnswerBook2 installer program and click OK.

6. Follow the directions as prompted.

How to Install the Answerbook2 Documentation Server Using pkgadd

1. Insert the SEAS documentation CD in the CD-ROM drive.

2. Log in as root on the documentation server machine and change directory to the location of the installation packages.

3. Type the command:

   pkgadd package_name

   To install the server packages into a non-default directory, use the pkgadd -d . -a none command. This causes the pkgadd utility to prompt you for the directory into which you want the software installed.

   SUNWab2r (0.02 Megabytes) installs in root partition and provides configuration and startup files.

   SUNWab2s (0.21 Megabytes) provides shared files for performing document processing.

   SUNWab2u (21.02 Megabytes) provides executable and back-end processing files for server and administration functions.

4. Start the server, if needed.

   Installing the packages should start the server on the default port of 8888. If it does not start, type the following command to start it:

   # /usr/lib/ab2/bin/ab2admin -o start