depothelper(1)depothelper(1)NAMEdepothelper - List, download, install or uninstall HP-UX archive pack‐
age and dependency depots easily
SYNOPSISdepothelper [-?|-h] [-a architecture] [-c cache_directory]
[-e expiry_days] [-f] [-i] [-l [package[-version] [package[-ver‐
sion]...]] [-n] [-o os_version] [-p ftp_proxy_host:ftp_proxy_port]
[-r] [-u] package[-version] [package[-version]...]
DESCRIPTIONdepothelper assists in the listing, download, installation and unin‐
stallation of package depots and their dependencies from the HP-UX ar‐
chive. Anything downloaded will be cached (for 3 months by default) and
the cached version will be used in preference for future runs. Simi‐
larly, depothelper will skip installing packages if they are already
installed, although the download cache and installation skip can be
bypassed if the -f option is supplied.
If depothelper is run on a machine with no direct internet connection,
then the -p option can specify an FTP proxy host and port, although be
aware that this should be a "true" FTP proxy (e.g. ftpproxy) and not
just Squid handling ftp://-style requests.
Multiple packages, with or without their version numbers, can be speci‐
fied on the command line. In this case, all dependencies of all speci‐
fied packages are cumulatively calculated, downloaded and installed via
swinstall first, followed by the specified packages. The -u option will
do the reverse of this (i.e. uninstall the parents specified using
swremove and then uninstall their dependencies, if possible).
OPTIONS
The following options are recognised:
-? or -h
Display a syntax usage message.
-a architecture
By default, depothelper will assume that downloaded
depots will be for the same architecture as the machine
on which it is run. If this needs to be overridden,
"hppa" (PA-RISC) or "ia64" (Itanium 2) can be specified
as the preferred architecture. If a different architec‐
ture from the machine it is run on is specified,
depothelper will also switch on the -n option (no instal‐
lation) automatically.
-c cache_directory
depothelper caches downloaded files in the
/usr/local/lib/depothelper directory by default. Use this
-c option to override the cache directory setting.
-e expiry_days
Downloaded depots are usually stored for 93 days (3
months) before being deleted. This can be overridden with
the -e option and specifying "-e 0" will therefore effec‐
tively disable the cache.
-fdepothelper normally will not download any depot that is
cached or install any depot that's already installed.
However, if -f is supplied, it will always download all
depots and install them all, regardless of the state of
the cache or the depots already installed.
-l [package[-version]...]
If just the -l option is supplied, depothelper will dis‐
play a list of all installed packages and their dependen‐
cies. If one or more packages are specified with -l, then
those packages and their dependencies will be listed,
regardless as to whether they are installed or not.
-n Specifying this option will skip the installation of
depots i.e. they will be downloaded if necessary, but not
installed. This is useful if one HP-UX box needs to be
used to download packages to install another HP-UX box
(use -a and -o to specify the architecture/OS of the
other box if it's different). Tip: Make the cache direc‐
tory available via NFS to other machines. That way, when
one machine downloads the depots with "depothelper -n",
the other(s) can install them later on with "depothelper"
as well. If -n and -u are both specified, then a list of
depots to be uninstalled will be shown instead of unin‐
stalling them.
-o os_version
By default, depothelper will assume that downloaded
depots will be for the same OS version as the machine on
which it is run. If this needs to be overridden, 11.11,
11.23 or 11.31 can be specified as the preferred OS ver‐
sion. If a different OS version from the machine it is
run on is specified, depothelper will also switch on the
-n option (no installation) automatically.
-p ftp_proxy_host:ftp_proxy_port
If the machine depothelper is run on doesn't have a
direct internet connection, then an FTP proxy can be used
to download depots. This is specified as as an FTP proxy
server's host and port, separated by a colin. Please note
that this should be a "true" FTP proxy server (e.g. ftp‐
proxy) and not just Squid handling ftp://-style requests.
-r Any depot that is successfully installed will have its
equivalent cache file deleted as well if this option is
specified.
-u Using this option will attempt to uninstall the specified
packages using swremove and, if possible, uninstall their
dependencies too. The parent packages specified on the
command line will be uninstalled first and then any
dependencies which have none of their parents still
installed will be uninstalled afterwards. If -n and -u
are both specified, then a list of depots to be unin‐
stalled will be shown instead of uninstalling them.
RETURN VALUE
Successful execution of depothelper returns 0, but it fails it will
return a value of 1, with an appropriate error message sent to stderr.
WARNINGS
There may be a bug with the "swlist" command when specified with no
options on the Itanium 11.23 platform (yes, even with PHCO_38149
installed) - it seems to fail to list all the archive depots installed
and this in turn may cause unnecessary re-installation of some depots
on that platform when depothelper is run. This doesn't happen on any of
the other platforms that depothelper supports.
depothelper only currently runs on HP-UX i.e. you can't use, say, Linux
to download and cache depots with it. This may change in a future
release.
AUTHOR
Richard K. Lloyd <richard.lloyd@connectinternetsolutions.com>
depothelper(1)