Web Start Flash (Reference)
The Web Start Flash installation feature provides tools for administering and managing Web Start Flash archives. After you create an archive, you can extract archive information, split an archive into sections, or combine archive sections.
Web Start Flash Archive Sections
Web Start Flash archives contain at least three sections. The sections include both archive identification information and the actual files that were copied from the master system to be installed on the Clone system.
Archive Cookie Section - The first section of a Web Start Flash archive contains a cookie that identifies the file as a Web Start Flash archive. The cookie must be present for an archive to be valid.
Archive Identification Section - The second section contains keywords with values that provide identification information about the archive.
User-Defined Sections - Following the Archive Identification Section, you can define and insert sections. The Web Start Flash archive does not process any sections that you insert. User-defined sections must be line oriented and terminated with newline (ASCII 0x0a) characters. The length of individual lines has no limit. If you include binary data in a user-defined section, you must encode it by using base64 or a similar algorithm.
The name for user-defined sections must begin with "X" and can contain any characters other than linefeeds, equal signs, null characters, and forward slashes (/). For example, "X-department" is a valid user-defined section name.
Archive Files Section - The Archive Files Section contains the files that were saved from the master system.
Web Start Flash Keywords
Keywords and values are separated by a single equal sign with only one pair per line. Individual lines can be any length. The keywords are case insensitive.
General Keywords
The beginning and ending of each Web Start Flash archive section is defined by the section_begin and section_end keywords. The values for the section_begin and section_end keywords are described in the following table.
Table 20-1 Values for section_begin and section_end Keywords
Archive Section | Value for section_begin and section_end keywords |
|---|---|
Archive cookie | cookie |
Archive identification | identification |
User-defined sections | section_name |
Archive files | archive |
Identification Section Keywords
This section describes the keywords for use in the Archive Identification section and the values you can define for them.
The following table explains keywords that describe the archive.
Table 20-2 Identification Section Keywords
Keywords | Value Definitions |
|---|---|
content_name (required) | The Web Start Flash archive deployment utilities use the value of the content_name keyword to identify the archive. The value can be no longer than 256 characters. You might want the value of the content_name keyword to describe the function and purpose of the archive because the content_name value might be presented to the user during the archive selection and extraction processes. |
creation_date | The value of the creation_date keyword is a textual timestamp that represents the time that you created the archive. The value must be in the format YYYYMMDDhhmmss. For example, 20000131221409 represents January 31st, 2000 10:14:09p.m. If you do not specify a creation date, the default date is set in Greenwich mean time (GMT). |
creation_master | The value of the creation_master keyword is the name of the master system you used to create the archive. If you do not specify a value for creation_master, flarcreate uses the system name that is reported by uname -n. |
content_type | You define the value of the content_type keyword to specify a category for the archive. The Web Start Flash archive deployment utilities display the value of the content_type keyword during deployment. |
content_description | You define the value of the content_description keyword to provide a description of the contents of the archive. The value of this keyword has no length limit. |
content_author | You define the value of the content_author keyword to identify the creator of the archive. Suggested values include the full name of the creator and the creator's email address. |
content_architectures | The value of the content_architectures keyword is a comma-delimited list of the kernel architectures that the archive supports. When you create a Web Start Flash archive, the archive generates the value of the content_architectures keyword. If the archive contains this keyword, the Web Start Flash archive deployment utilities validate the kernel architecture of the clone system against the list of architectures that the archive supports. The deployment fails if the archive does not support the kernel architecture of the clone system. If the keyword is not present, the deployment utilities do not validate the architecture of the clone system. |
creation_node | The value returned from uname -n. If you create a Web Start Flash archive in which the root directory is not /, flarcreate uses the contents of the nodename(4) file. |
creation_hardware_class | The value returned from uname -m. If you create a Web Start Flash archive in which the root directory is not /, flarcreate inserts the string UNKNOWN. |
creation_platform | The value returned from uname -i. If you create a Web Start Flash archive in which the root directory is not /, flarcreate inserts the string UNKNOWN. |
creation_processor | The value returned from uname -p. If you create a Web Start Flash archive in which the root directory is not /, flarcreate inserts the string UNKNOWN. |
creation_release | The value returned from uname -r. If you create a Web Start Flash archive in which the root directory is not /, flarcreate attempts to use the contents of root_directory/var/sadm/system/admin/INST_RELEASE. If flarcreate cannot read this file, it inserts the string UNKNOWN. |
creation_os_name | The value returned from uname -s. If you create a Web Start Flash archive in which the root directory is not /, flarcreate attempts to use the contents of root_directory/var/sadm/system/admin/INST_RELEASE. If flarcreate cannot read this file, it inserts the string UNKNOWN. |
creation_os_version | The value returned from uname -v. If you create a Web Start Flash archive in which the root directory is not /, flarcreate inserts the string UNKNOWN. |
In addition to the keywords that are defined by the Web Start Flash archive, you can define keywords. The Web Start Flash archive ignores user-defined keywords, but you can provide scripts or programs that process the identification section and use user-defined keywords. The name of a user-defined keyword must begin with "X" and can contain any characters other than linefeeds, equal signs, and null characters. For example, X-department is a valid name for a user-defined keyword.
Web Start Flash Commands
Use the Web Start Flash commands to create and manage Web Start Flash archives.
flarcreate
Use the flarcreate command to create a Web Start Flash archive from a master system. You can use this command when the master system is running in multiuser mode or single-user mode. You can also use flarcreate when the master system is booted from the Solaris 9 DVD or the Solaris 9 Software 1 of 2 CD or from an image of the Solaris 9 Software and Solaris 9 Languages CDs. The master system should be in as stable a state as possible when you create a Web Start Flash archive. The syntax of the command is as follows:
flarcreate -n name [-R root] [-S] [-H] [-c] [-x exclude] [-t [-p posn][-b blocksize]] [-i date] [-m [-u section [-d dir]] [-f file_list] [-F] [-U key=val] master] [-a author] [-e descr:-E descr_file] [-T type] path/filename
In this command line, path is the directory in which you want the archive file to be saved and filename is the name of the archive file. If you do not specify a path, flarcreate saves the archive file in the current directory.
Table 20-3 Command-Line Options for flarcreate
Option | Description |
|---|---|
Required Options | |
-n name | The value of this flag is the name of the archive. The name you specify is the value of the content_name keyword. |
Option for Compression | |
-c | Compresses the archive by using compress(1). |
Options for Directories and Sizes | |
-R root | Creates the archive from the file system tree that is rooted at root. If you do not specify this option, flarcreate creates an archive from a file system that is rooted at /. |
-S | Does not include sizing information in the archive. |
-H | Does not generate the hash identifier. |
Option for Excluding Files and Directories | |
-x exclude | Excludes the file or directory exclude from the archive. If you specify a file system with -R root, the path to the directory exclude is assumed to be relative to root. |
Options Used With User-Defined Sections | |
-u section | Includes a user-defined section. To include more than one user-defined section, section must be a space-separated list of section names. |
-d dir | Retrieves the section file that is specified with -u from dir. |
Options Used With Tape Archives | |
-t | Creates an archive on a tape device. The filename argument is the name of the tape device. |
-p posn | Use only with the -t option. Specifies the position on the tape device for flarcreate to store the archive. If you do not use this option, flarcreate places the archive in the current position of the tape. |
-b blocksize | Specifies the block size flarcreate uses when creating the archive. If you do not specify a block size, flarcreate uses the default block size of 64k. |
Options for Specifying Files | |
-f file_list | Adds the files in the file file_list to the archive. The file_list file must contain one file per line. The path to each file must be relative to the alternate root directory or an absolute path. If you use "-" as the value of file_list, flarcreate uses the output of stdin as the list of files. When you use the value "-", the archive size is not calculated. |
-F | Uses only the files in file_list to create the archive. |
Options for Archive Identification | |
-U key=val | Includes user-defined keyword(s) and values in the Archive Identification section. |
-i date | Uses date as the value for the creation_date keyword. If you do not specify a date, flarcreate uses the current system time and date. |
-m master | Uses master as the name of the master system on which you created the archive for the creation_master keyword. If you do not specify a master, flarcreate uses the system name that is reported by uname -n. |
-e descr | Uses descr for the value of the content_description keyword. You cannot use this option when you use the -E option. |
-E descr_file | Retrieves the value for the content_description keyword from the file descr_file. You cannot use this option when you use the -e option. |
-a author | Uses author as the author name in the Archive Identification section for the content_author keyword. If you do not specify an author, flarcreate does not include the content_author keyword in the Archive Identification section. |
-T type | Uses type as the value for the content_type keyword. If you do not specify a type, flarcreate does not include the content_type keyword. |