Previewing an Operation

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Many of the commands shown in this chapter and in Configuring Installed Images have an -n option that enables you to see what the command will do without making any changes.

Tip - Best practice is to use the -n option whenever it is available. Use the -n option with one or more verbose options (-nv, -nvv) and review the effects of the command before you execute the command without the -n option.

The following example shows information about a package installation that is not actually performed:

$ pkg install -nv group/feature/amp
           Packages to install:         6
           Mediators to change:         1
            Services to change:         2
     Estimated space available:  22.70 GB
Estimated space to be consumed: 751.08 MB
       Create boot environment:        No
Create backup boot environment:        No
          Rebuild boot archive:        No

Changed mediators:
  mediator mysql:
           version: None -> 5.1 (system default)

Changed packages:
solaris
  database/mysql-51
    None -> 5.1.37,5.11-0.175.2.0.0.34.0:20140303T160611Z
  database/mysql-common
    None -> 5.11,5.11-0.175.2.0.0.34.0:20140303T161628Z
  group/feature/amp
    None -> 0.5.11,5.11-0.175.2.0.0.33.0:20140217T134747Z
  web/server/apache-22/module/apache-dtrace
    None -> 0.3.1,5.11-0.175.2.0.0.34.0:20140303T175456Z
  web/server/apache-22/module/apache-fcgid
    None -> 2.3.9,5.11-0.175.2.0.0.34.0:20140303T175502Z
  web/server/apache-22/module/apache-php5
    None -> 5.2.17,5.11-0.175.1.0.0.18:20120611T210317Z
Services:
  restart_fmri:
    svc:/system/manifest-import:default
    svc:/system/rbac:default

This output indicates that this installation operation will be done in the current BE and not in a new BE, and a backup of this the current BE will not be created. You could specify options or image properties to require a new BE or a backup BE. The “Changed packages” section shows that the amp group package would be installed, and its five group dependencies would be installed. The output shows which version of each package would be installed. The token None indicates that these packages are not currently installed and therefore are not being updated.

The following command produces a large amount of output because so many packages would be affected. Setting this facet would install all localized content for all packages. Running this preview command might change how you decide to schedule this operation or whether you decide to add fewer new locales. This output shows that a new BE would not be created by default, but a backup BE would be created.

$ pkg change-facet -nv 'facet.locale.*=true'
            Packages to change:       130
     Variants/Facets to change:         1
     Estimated space available:  22.70 GB
Estimated space to be consumed:   3.45 GB
       Create boot environment:        No
Create backup boot environment:       Yes
          Rebuild boot archive:        No
Changed variants/facets:
    facet locale.* (local): False -> True
Changed packages:
solaris
  ...