The Image Packaging System, also known as IPS or pkg(5), is a cross-platform package management system created by the

OpenSolaris OpenSolaris () is a discontinued open-source computer operating system based on Solaris and created by Sun Microsystems. It was also, perhaps confusingly, the name of a project initiated by Sun to build a developer and user community around th ...

community in coordination with

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...

. It is used by

Solaris Solaris may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film * ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem ** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg ** ''Solaris'' (1972 film), directed by ...

11, several illumos-based distributions: OpenIndiana, OmniOS, XStreamOS and a growing number of layered applications, including GlassFish, across a variety of OS platforms. IPS is coded in the Python programming language.

Features

Features include: * Use of ZFS, allowing multiple boot environments and easy package operation rollbacks * Transactional actions * Support for multiple platform architectures within a single package * Legacy support for SVR4 packages * Extensive search grammar * Remote search capability * Changes-only based package updates * Network package repository * File and network-based package publication * Package operation history * On-disk package format (p5p) * Multi-platform ports for layered applications: ** Broad platform support: Windows, Linux,

OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

Darwin Darwin may refer to: Common meanings * Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection * Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...

, illumos and AIX ** Cross-platform update notification and package management Graphical user interfaces.

Advantages

The fact that IPS delivers each single file in a separate shelf with a separate checksum, a package update only needs to replace files that have been modified. For ELF binaries, it computes checksums only from the loaded parts of an ELF binary; this permits e.g. to avoid to update an ELF binary that changed only the ELF comment section.

Trade offs

Due to the fact that IPS delivers each single file in a separate shelf, slow operation is caused when the input source is on a medium with high latency (e.g. internet with higher round trip time or CD/DVD media with slow seeks).

References

External links

Github project: Image Packaging System

Multi-platform Packaging for Layered Distros

GlassFish Update Center Toolkit)

Update Center 2.0 (multiplatform IPS)
OpenSolaris Free package management systems Sun Microsystems software Unix package management-related software {{Install-software-stub