[OpenIndiana-discuss] pkg and local zones

[Jim Klimov]

On 2014-02-19 13:27, Peter Tribble wrote:
>> However, every now and then I need to install some package into
>> all zones. While I can parse the "zoneadm list" output and find
>> zoneroots and ask pkg(5) to install into the altroots,
> Would running pkg via zlogin be better?

It would be roughly equivalent in terms of command-line scripting,
and would only influence the zones running at the moment. Also,
such installation would rely on the package servers configured and
available in the local zone (if any). Although pkg via zlogin has
the benefit of instantly launching some SMF wrappers that the new
package might provide, etc. So these are quite different methods...

By the way, I saw that SVR4 pkgadd done into a local zone from the GZ
(as an altroot) sometimes fails with an error related to the content
of $ZONEROOT/etc/zones/index: the zone path there (/) is invalid
in the GZ context. I have to script up commenting away this entry
(or renaming the file) before pkgadd and returning it after.
Would this be considered a bug worthy of mentioning in the issue
tracker? (Now that some people seem offensive about others suggesting
what people should do, I guess I should ask about every one of my
crazy-or-not ideas and RFEs ;) )


>> it is a
>> bit clunky, so I wonder if I missed some option to just have the
>> pkg(5) program itself install the named package into all available
>> local zones?
>>
>> If not, does this sound like a worthwhile RFE for those who can
>> do and don't know what to do next? :^)
>>
>
> When reimplementing zones for Tribblix (where I have both legacy
> whole/sparse zones and the ipkg-style independent zones) I
> steered away from the old SVR4 behaviour of controlling packages
> (after zone installation)  from the global zone. It adds horrendous
> complexity to the packaging system. It's far better to loop over a list
> of zones and run the packaging commands in each zone than to do
> it from the global zone. (And that way you can manipulate an arbitrary
> subset of zones depending on need. Besides, combining simpler
> commands is the unix way.)

You are probably right. Still, at the moment this requires me to type
in the commands involved upon every case of a major (home-brewn)
package upgrade, or distribute a script to manage the process, which
is a bit inconvenient. I wonder if some automation for this belongs
in the common illumos-gate (whether as part of pkgadd and pkg(5),
or as a separate utility script)?

Thanks,
//Jim Klimov