The Solaris operating environment release includes the .platform directory, a new directory on the Solaris CD image. This directory contains files (created by Sun and Solaris OEMs) that define platform support. These files are generically referred to as platform definition files. They provide a means to map different platform types into a platform group.

Platform definition files in the .platform directory are used by the installation software to ensure that software appropriate for the architecture of the system will be installed.

Sun provides a platform definition file named .platform/Solaris . This file is the only one that can define platform groups to which other platform definition files can refer. For example, an OEM platform definition file can refer to any platform group specified in the Solaris platform definition file.

Other platform definition files are delivered by OEMs. To avoid name conflicts, OEMs will name their platform definition file with an OEM-unique string. OEMs should use whatever string they use to make their package names unique. This unique string is often the OEM's stock symbol.

Comments are allowed in a platform definition file. A "#" begins a comment and can be placed anywhere on a line.

Platform definition files are composed of keyword-value pairs, and there are two kinds of stanzas in the file: platform group definitions and platform identifications.

• Platform group definitions:

  The keywords in a platform group definition stanza are:

  PLATFORM_GROUP

  The PLATFORM_GROUP keyword must be the first keyword in the platform group definition stanza. The value assigned to this keyword is the name of the platform group, for example:

  PLATFORM_GROUP=sun4c

  The PLATFORM_GROUP name is an arbitrary name assigned to a group of platforms. However, PLATFORM_GROUP typically equals the output of the uname -m command. PLATFORM_GROUP value cannot have white space and is limited to 256 ASCII characters.

  INST_ARCH

  The instruction set architecture of all platforms in the platform group, for example:

  INST_ARCH=sparc

  The INST_ARCH keyword value must be the value returned by the uname -p command on all platforms in the platform group.

• Platform identifications:

  The keywords in a platform identification stanza are:

  PLATFORM_NAME

  The PLATFORM_NAME keyword must be the first keyword in the platform identification stanza. The PLATFORM_NAME is the name assigned to the platform, for example:

  PLATFORM_NAME=SUNW,SPARCstation-5

  Typically, this name is the same as the value returned by the uname -icommand on the machine, but it need not be the same.

  The PLATFORM_NAME value cannot have white space and is limited to 256 ASCII characters. If it contains parentheses, it must contain only balanced parentheses. For example. the string "foo(bar)foo" is a valid value for this keyword, but "foo(bar" is not.

  The other keywords in the platform identification stanza can be in any order, as long as the PLATFORM_NAME keyword is first.

  PLATFORM_ID

  The value returned by the uname -i command on the machine, for example:

  PLATFORM_ID=SUNW,SPARCstation-5

  MACHINE_TYPE

  The value returned by the uname -m command on the machine, for example:

  MACHINE_TYPE=sun4c

  IN_PLATFORM_GROUP

  The platform group of which the platform is a member, for example:

  IN_PLATFORM_GROUP=sun4c

  The platform group name must be specified in the same file as the platform identification stanza or in the platform definition file with the name .platform/Solaris .

  The IN_PLATFORM_GROUP keyword is optional. A platform doesn't have to belong to a platform group. If a platform is not explicitly assigned to a platform group, it essentially forms its own platform group, where the platform group name is the PLATFORM_NAME value. The IN_PLATFORM_GROUP value typically equals the output of the uname -m command. IN_PLATFORM_GROUP value cannot have white space and is limited to 256 ASCII characters.

  INST_ARCH

  The instruction set architecture of the platform, for example:

  INST_ARCH=sparc

  This field is only required if the platform does not belong to a platform group. The INST_ARCH keyword value must be the value returned by the uname -i command on all platforms in the platform group.

The installation program will remain compatible with the old Solaris CD format. If a Solaris CD image does not contain any platform definition files, the installation and upgrade programs will select the packages to be installed based on machine type, that is, the value returned by the uname -p command.

The .platform directory must reside as /cd_image/Solaris_vers/.platform, where

cd_image

Is the path to the mounted Solaris CD (/cdrom/cdrom0/s0 by default) or the path to a copy of the Solaris CD on a disk.

Solaris_vers

Is the version of Solaris, for example, Solaris_2.9.

Typically, a platform identification stanza contains either a PLATFORM_ID or a MACHINE_TYPE stanza, but not both.

If both are specified, both must match for a platform to be identified as this platform type. Each platform identification stanza must contain either a PLATFORM_ID value or a MACHINE_TYPE value. If a platform matches two different platform identification stanzas--one which matched on the value of PLATFORM_ID and one which matched on the value of MACHINE_TYPE , the one that matched on PLATFORM_ID will take precedence.

The .platform directory is part of the Solaris CD image, whether that be the Solaris CD or a copy of the Solaris CD on a system's hard disk.