Information Technology - Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) System Administration - Part 2: Software Administration

This part of ISO/IEC 15068 defines a software packaging layout and utilities that operate on that packaging layout as well as software installed from that packaging layout. The scope of this part of ISO/IEC 15068 is administration of software across distributed systems. This administration includes, but is not limited to, packaging of software for distribution, distribution of software to systems, installation and configuration of software on systems, and removal of software from systems.

This part of ISO/IEC 15068 is motivated by many factors, including a desire by system administrators and software suppliers to have a common way of installing an removing software. To meet the needs of these groups, this part of ISO/IEC 15068 consists of several components, listed below. The readers of this part of ISO/IEC 15068 include system administrators, suppliers of software that implement this part of ISO/IEC 15068, and suppliers of software that use implementation of this part of ISO/IEC 15068. Readers in each of these categories may find their attention drawn to different sections. The key components are listed below.

Software structures

This part of ISO/IEC 15068 defines a hierarchical set of structures used to define software. Information is kept about the software based on these structure definitions. The structure definitions apply both to installed software and to software prepared for installation but not yet installed. Software packaging layout This part of ISO/IEC 15068 defines the organization of software on a distribution medium, the information held about that software, and the way in which such information is represented. This enables both portability of software distributions across systems of different architecture, and the use of different media to distribute software (including both file system and serial image forms).

Information kept about software

This part of ISO/IEC 15068 defines the information that is held about software, both installed software and distributions. This provides a consistent viewof software, even when that software is provided from various sources. The way in which the information is held is undefined within this part of ISO/IEC 15068.

Utilities to administer software

This part of ISO/IEC 15068 defines a utility to convert software into the packaging layout, known as a distribution. This part of ISO/IEC 15068 also contains utilities to examine the information in a distribution, copy software from one distribution to another, install software from a distribution, remove software from a distribution, and verify the integrity of a distribution. There are also utilities for configuring installed software, verifying the integrity of installed software, examining and modifying the information held about installed software, and for removing installed software from a system. This provides administrators with a consistent method of dealing with software across all conforming systems.

Distributed software administration

This part of ISO/IEC 15068 defines the concepts, and the utility syntax and behaviors, for managing software in a distributed environment. This includes the concept of different software administration roles (developer, packager, manager, source, target, and client). Different utilities involve different roles, and different roles may be distributed across multiple systems within a single command execution.

This part of ISO/IEC 15068 is based upon the knowledge of, and documentation for, existing programs that assume an interface and architecture similar to that described by POSIX.1 {2}1) and POSIX.2 {3}. Any questions regarding the definition of terms or the semantics of an underlying concept should be referred to POSIX.1 {2} and POSIX.2 {3}. This part of ISO/IEC 15068 does not require the use of any specific programming language and, in particular, does not require the use of the C language. This part of ISO/IEC 15068 is based upon the knowledge of, and documentation for, existing programs that utilize C-language interfaces. Any questions regarding the definition of terms or the semantics of an underlying concept in this language should be referred to C Standard {B13}.

NOTE: The numbers in curly brackets correspond to those of the references in 1.2. When preceded by a ..B,.. the numbers correspond to those of the bibliography in Annex A.