Updated: 11 December 1998

POLYCENTER Software Installation Utility Developer's Guide

Although you provide the product description file (PDF) and product text file (PTF) as input to the package operation, they also exist in modified (output) form in the kit you create. You need to be aware that two versions of these files do exist and perform specific tasks.

Basically, you create the input version as input to the package operation, and the POLYCENTER Software Installation utility creates the output version for its own use.

The package operation changes the format of the output PTF file. For more information, see Section 4.2.

The output PDF is in the same format as the input PDF, but the package operation may modify statements in the output PDF. For example, the package operation adds the size option to file statements in the output PDF.

The product description file (PDF) is a required component of any software product kit that you create using the POLYCENTER Software Installation utility. The PDF:

• Specifies all files that comprise the product.
• Identifies configuration options that are presented to the user at installation time.
• Specifies any dependencies the product may have on other software products.
• Defines various actions that must be performed during installation.

The POLYCENTER Software Installation utility is intended to simplify the job of system managers, making products quick and easy to install and manage. Use the following guidelines when writing PDFs:

• Minimize installation activity (such as linking images and building databases). Instead, include all material required for product execution on the reference copy.
• Make your products adapt to the target environment at execution time rather than installation time. This practice keeps products consistent across varying configurations.
• Avoid requiring system parameter settings on the target system that would require rebooting the system.
• Minimize configuration choices at installation time.
• Ensure that the PDF expresses all the known requirements that your product needs to execute. Use the checklist in Section 3.2 to define the requirements for the target environment.

To define the environment for your product, use the following checklist. (Chapter 7 of this guide describes each PDL statement.)

• Does your product depend on other software?
  For example, your product may require a specific version of the operating system or optional software products. To express these software requirements, use the software function or statement.

  Note Please take note of the distinction between the software statement and the software function. The statement and function serve different purposes and are not interchangeable. The software statement specifies a software product that should be installed on the system to satisfy a software product dependency. It also specifies a software product that is a part of a platform (product suite) and should be included in the platform product installation. The software function tests for the presence of a product. You can also specify the version of the product that must be present. The software function, unlike the software statement, does not create a permanent software reference to another product and does not force the installation of the other product.

  
  Note that software you reference with a software statement must be registered in the product database to be recognized by the POLYCENTER Software Installation utility. If you install a product using a mechanism other than the POLYCENTER Software Installation utility, the product database does not store information about the product unless you register a full or transition product description. For more information about creating transition product descriptions, see Section 3.5.7.
  
• If you are creating a platform, what software products comprise the platform?
  If you are creating a platform, you must specify the software products that make up the platform. To specify the products that comprise your platform, use the software statement with the component option.
  
• Does your product require specific hardware devices?
  For example, your product may require that the system have access to certain peripheral devices, such as a compact disc drive or printer. To display a message to users expressing these hardware requirements, use the hardware device statement.
  
• Does your product run only on specific computer models?
  Some products run only on certain computer models. For example, recent versions of the OpenVMS operating system are no longer supported on the VAX--11/725 computer. If this is the case with your product, use the hardware processor statement to display a message to users.
  
• Does your product require specific images, files, or directories?
  All the files, images, and directories that your product requires should be expressed in file or directory statements.
  
• Does your product require a special account on the system?
  Some products require a dedicated account on the system. If this is the case for your product, use the account statement to supply the account.
  
• Does your product require network objects?
  Some products require network objects on the system. If this is the case for your product, and your object is designed for DECnet Phase IV, use the network object statement to supply the required network objects. For DECnet-Plus (Phase V) you might want to use a different mechanism. For example, supply an NCL script with a PDL file statement.
  
• Do you want to set up rights identifiers?
  If you want to set up rights identifiers for your product, use the rights identifier statement.
  
• Does your product supply an image to the system loadable images table?
  To supply an image to the system loadable images table, use the loadable image statement.
  
• Does your product have several options that the user can choose?
  Although it is a good practice to limit the number of options that the user can choose, you may need to present the user with options during installation. To present options to the user, use the option statement.
  
• Do you need to patch an executable image?
  To patch an executable image, use the patch image statement (VAX only).
  
• Do you need to patch a text file?
  To patch a text file, use the patch text statement.
  
• Does your product have specific security requirements?
  If the files and directories for your product require special protection or access controls, you can express this in the product description. See the descriptions of the directory statement and the file statement. You can also supply a rights identifier using the rights identifier statement.
  
• Does your product require certain values for system parameters?
  Many software products require that system parameters have certain values for the product to function properly. Use the system parameter statement to display system parameter requirements to users.
  
• Does your product require certain values for process parameters?
  If your product requires certain values for process parameters, use the process parameter statement to display these requirements to users.
  
• Does your product require certain values for process privileges?
  If your product requires certain process privileges, use the process privilege statement to display these requirements to users.
  
• Do you want to include a functional test with your product?
  If you have a functional test for your product, you can include it in the product material to verify that your product installed correctly. To execute the functional test for your product, use the execute test statement.
  
• Are there commands that your installation procedure needs to execute that are outside the domain of the POLYCENTER Software Installation utility?
  If you have commands that your installation procedure needs to execute that have no POLYCENTER Software Installation utility equivalent, use the execute statement.
  
• Does your product have specific pre- or postinstallation tasks?
  You can use the POLYCENTER Software Installation utility to automate these tasks; however, there may be some tasks you want users to perform that are outside the capabilities of the utility. You can inform users of such tasks using the information statement. You can also use several of the execute statements to perform these tasks.
  
• Does your product require command, help, macro, object, or text library modules?
  You should express the following types of modules in your PDF:
  • DIGITAL Command Language (DCL) command definition modules
  • DCL help modules
  • Macro modules
  • Object modules
  • Text modules
  
  You can express these types of modules using the module statement.
  
• What happens to existing product files?
  You should make sure that your product's files are handled correctly during an installation or upgrade. The POLYCENTER Software Installation utility deletes obsolete files that are replaced when you install a full, operating system, or platform kit. In partial, patch, and mandatory update kits, the existing files are preserved. To remove obsolete files, use the remove statement and file statement options.
  
• Does your product require documentation?
  You may want to include online documentation (such as release notes) with your product. To express the documentation requirements for your product, use the release notes option to the file statement.

You supply the PDF as input to the PRODUCT PACKAGE command. The PDF can have any valid OpenVMS file name and file type. Compaq recommends that you give the input PDF file the extension .PCSI$DESC.

TEST.PCSI$DESC

When you execute the PRODUCT PACKAGE command, it creates an output PDF. (See Section 2.9 for the distinction between input and output files.)

The output PDF file format is the same as the input PDF; that is, a sequential file containing PDL statements. The contents of the output PDF, however, may differ slightly from that of the input PDF. For example, the POLYCENTER Software Installation utility adds the size option to every file statement and supplies the actual size of the file in disk blocks.

The name of the output PDF consists of the product's stylized file name and a file type of .PCSI$DESCRIPTION:

producer-base-product-version-kit_type.PCSI$DESCRIPTION.

For example:

ABC_CO-AXPVMS-BLACKJACK-V0201-17-1.PCSI$DESCRIPTION

See Section 2.3 for a description of the product naming syntax.

3.4 Structure of a PDF

A PDF is a text file that contains a sequence of PDL statements. A PDF must begin with a product statement and end with an end-product statement. The product statement uniquely identifies the product and specifies the type of kit to build (full, partial, patch, and so forth). Each file that is part of the product material must be specified with a file statement. The following example shows a complete PDF for a product that places one file named test.exe in SYS$COMMON:[SYSEXE].

product dec vaxvms test v1.0 full ; file [sysexe]test.exe ; end product ;

3.4.1 Overview of PDL Statements

The product description language consists of statements that are defined in Chapter 7 of this manual. As an overview, these statements are listed below in classes according to their main function.

• Statement groups are defined by a pair of opening and closing statements; by convention the closing statement is the keyword end followed by the keyword of the opening statement. Statement groups operate on statements lexically contained within their begin-end pair. Many statement groups can be nested within other groups.
  The following statement groups are used to conditionally process other statements:
  • if and end if (else and else if statements optionally can be used within the statement group). Used to evaluate a Boolean value of a function or expression as a condition to process enclosed statements or a group of statements.
  • option and end option
  
  The following statement groups unconditionally process all statements at their inner level:
  • part and end part
  • product and end product
  • remove and end remove
  • scope and end scope
• Statements that create or modify managed objects include:
  • account
  • bootstrap block
  • directory
  • file
  • link (create an alias directory entry)
  • loadable image
  • module
  • network object
  • patch image
  • patch text
  • register module
  • rights identifier
• Statements that enforce software dependencies and hardware requirements by testing the execution environment and taking appropriate action include:
  • apply to
  • hardware device
  • hardware processor
  • infer
  • software
  • upgrade
• Statements whose main purpose is to display a message to the user and in some cases query the user for a response are as follows:
  • error
  • information
  • process parameter
  • process privilege
  • system parameter
• Statements that cause producer-supplied command procedures to execute or instruct the user to manually perform a task include:
  • execute abort
  • execute install...remove
  • execute login
  • execute postinstall
  • execute preconfigure
  • execute release
  • execute start...stop
  • execute test

Many software products require only the use of a small subset of these PDL statements to create their PDF. Commonly used statements are as follows:

• product and end product (required in every PDF)
• file
• directory
• module
• software
• option and end option
• if and end if
• execute install...remove
• execute test

A PDL statement consists of:

• A keyword phrase that identifies the statement (required).
• Zero or more parameter values (which may be expressions in certain contexts).
• Zero or more options each specified as a keyword phrase and value pair.
• A semicolon (;) that terminates the statement (required).

Additional Syntax Rules

• Statements can span multiple lines and whitespace can be used freely to improve readability or show relationship through indentation levels.
• Case is not significant, except within a quoted string.
• A keyword phrase consists of one or more keywords as defined by the PDL statement.
• A comment is a sequence of two consecutive hyphens - - followed by characters up to and including end-of-line.
  When a string containing consecutive hyphens is passed as a parameter or option value, enclose the string in quotes. For example, "a--b.dat". This prevents the hyphens from being parsed as the start of a comment.
• Lexical element separators are used to set off keywords, values, expressions, and so on. They include end-of-line, comment, and the following characters (except when they appear within a quoted string): space, horizontal tab, form feed, and vertical tab.
• Delimiters are required syntax in many situations. They consist of the following characters: semicolon (;), comma (,), left parenthesis ((), right parenthesis ()), left angle bracket (<), and right angle bracket (>).
  When a string contains a delimiter character that is passed as a parameter or option value, enclose the string in quotes. For example, to pass the numeric UIC string [1,1] as an option value, use the quoted string form of "[1,1]" because it contains a comma character.

Certain PDL statements have a function form that tests for a condition in the execution environment and returns a Boolean value of true or false. A function is syntactically similar to its corresponding statement except that a function is enclosed in left and right angle brackets (<...>) instead of being terminated by a semicolon (;).

The following statements have corresponding functions:

• hardware device
• hardware processor
• option
• software
• upgrade

The logical name function does not have a corresponding statement form.

Expressions are used in if statements to produce a Boolean value for the if-condition test. An expression is delimited by opening and closing parentheses ((...)). It contains one or more functions and, optionally, one or more of the keywords AND, OR, and NOT, which are used as logical operators.

An expression has one of the following forms, where each term is either another expression or a function:

• (term)
• (term AND term)
• (term OR term)
• (NOT term)

The following example shows an if statement using a compound expression:

if ( (not <hardware device MUA0:>) and (<software ABC VAXVMS TEST version below 2.0>) ) ; . . . end if ;

3.4.4 PDL Data Types and Values

The PDL has several base data types that you must use when passing parameters to the PDL statements listed in Chapter 7. Table 3-1 describes the PDL base data types and their values. PDL statements may restrict the range of values that can be used as parameters.

Table 3-1 Base Data Types and Values

Data Type	Values
Boolean	The number 0 (false), the number 1 (true), the keywords false, true, no, and yes.
String	A sequence of 0 to 255 ISO Latin-1 characters. In the context of PDF language statements, abc is an unquoted string. "abc" is a quoted string. ""double_quoted_string"" is a quoted string that maintains original quotation marks. You must use the quoted string form if the string contains any PDL delimiters (open/close parenthesis, comma, open/close angle brackets, and semicolons) or lexical element separators (double hyphen, space, horizontal tab, form feed, or vertical tab). For example, "/privilege=(tmpmbx, netmbx)". Table 3-2 lists the additional constraints on PDL strings.
Signed integer	Specifies a positive, negative, or zero integral value in the range of -2147483648 to 2147483647.
Unsigned integer	Specifies a zero or positive integral value in the range of 0 through 4294967295.
Version identifier	See the description in Section 2.3.
Text module name	Specifies a unique name for a text module using the printable ISO Latin-1 characters, excluding horizontal tab, space, exclamation point, and comma. The name can be from 1 to 31 characters in length.

Table 3-2 describes additional constraints on the string data type.

Table 3-2 String Data Type Constraints

String Type	Values	Examples
Unconstrained	None; any character may appear in any position.
Access control entry (ACE)	Specifies an ACE for a directory or file.	"(IDENTIFIER=[KM],ACCESS=READ)"
Command	Specifies an operating system command that you want to execute during a specific operation.	@PCSI$DESTINATION:[SYSTEST] PROD$IVP.COM
Device name	Specifies the name of a hardware device.	DUB6:
File name	Specifies a file name (without a device or directory specification).	STARTUP.DAT
Identifier name	Specifies a rights identifier.	DOC
Module name	Specifies the name of a module in a library.	FMSHELP
Processor model name	Specifies the model identification of a particular computer system.	7
Relative directory specification	Specifies the directory name and, if necessary, the directory path, relative to the root directory specification.	[MY_PRODUCT]
Relative file specification	Specifies the directory path and file name, relative to the root directory path.	[MY_PRODUCT]DRIVER.DAT
Root directory specification	Specifies the directory name and a trailing period (.). If you specify a directory name and omit the period, it is inserted. If necessary, you can add the device name.	[TEST.] SYS$SYSDEVICE:[VMS$COMMON.]

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