What Is an IPS Package?

A package in IPS is a collection of actions defined by a set of key/value pairs that represent metadata such as classification, and descriptions, or other attributes such as path and alias. The key-value pair could also represent a data payload. These actions can represent items such as files found in a file system, or installable objects, such as drivers, services, groups, and users.

For more information, see Actions in IPS.

Note - An on-disk format has not yet been defined for IPS packages. As such, the IPS system does not currently have an equivalent for .rpm, SVR4 packages, or .nbm files.

pkg(1) Uses FMRIs

Each IPS package is represented by a Fault Management Resource Identifier (FMRI). FMRIs are used with the pkg(1) command to indicate which packages to perform operations on.

The FMRI includes descriptive information about the package, such as the package name, version information, and date.

For example, the FMRI, pkg://opensolaris.org/library/libc@5.11,5.11-0.75:20071001T163427Z, consists of the following information:

• Scheme – pkg

• Publisher – opensolaris.org

• Package Name – libc

• Version String – Consists of four components :

  • Component Version – 5.11

  • Build Version – 5.11

  • Branch Version – 0.75

  • Timestamp (when the package was published) – 20071001T163427Z