Stephen Hahn wrote: > Watching this discussion proceed, I now feel that this file should > either be removed and a small C API be written to query the packaging > metadata (which has all the appropriate information in the convention > that the product will use to describe what's installed). I have not > seen nearly enough description of what questions are being asked that > this file/interface is supposed to answer, and what entities are > asking these questions and under what circumstances. >
There was some fairly cryptic stuff in the initial mail William sent, but it basically boils down to the installation and software management utilities being able to identify and present to the user what's installed in the disks and partitions attached to the system. I agree that using and querying metadata on a package such as SUNWsolnm could provide equivalent results to delivering the file, and I'm fine going in that direction. I believe, though, that there's a need to continue to provide the file for now in order that the Solaris 10 install code can identify our instances. We should probably verify that the ZFS install project for Solaris 10 is still influenced by it, though; if it isn't then I think that issue would be moot and it could be abandoned. Dave
