Identifying a package instance

Developer's Topics
Chapter 13, Packaging your software applications

Three parameters defined in the pkginfo(F) file combine to identify each instance uniquely. You should not assign identical values for all three parameters for two instances of the same package installed in the same target environment. These parameters are:

PKG: defines the software package abbreviation and remains constant for every instance of a package
VERSION: defines the software package version
ARCH: defines the software package architecture

For example, you might identify two identical versions of a package that run on different hardware as:

 Instance 1            Instance 2
 -----------------------------------------
 PKG="abbr"            PKG="abbr"
 VERSION="release 1"   VERSION="release 1"
 ARCH="MX300I"         ARCH="i386"

Two different versions of a package that run on the same hardware might be identified as:
Instance 1 Instance 2 ----------------------------------------- PKG="abbr" PKG="abbr" VERSION="release 1" VERSION="release 2" ARCH="i386" ARCH="i386"
All instances of a package installed on a system use the package abbreviation as the instance identifier (PKGINST).
NOTE: pkgmk(C) also assigns an instance identifier to a package as it places it on the installation medium if one or more instances of a package already exists. That identifier bears no relationship to the identifier assigned to the same package on the installation machine.