depothelper(1) depothelper(1) NAME depothelper - List, download, install or uninstall HP-UX archive package and dependency depots easily SYNOPSIS depothelper [-?|-h] [-a architecture] [-b bitness] [-c cache_directory] [-e expiry_days] [-f] [-g] [-i] [-l [package[-version] [package[- version]...]] [-n] [-o os_version] [-p ftp_proxy_host:ftp_proxy_port] [-r] [-u] package[-version] [package[-version]...] DESCRIPTION depothelper assists in the listing, download, installation and uninstallation of package depots and their dependencies from the HP-UX archive. Anything downloaded will be cached (for 3 months by default) and the cached version will be used in preference for future runs. Similarly, depothelper will skip installing packages if they are already installed, although the download cache and installation skip can be bypassed if the -f option is supplied. If depothelper is run on a machine with no direct internet connection, then the -p option can specify an FTP proxy host and port, although be aware that this should be a "true" FTP proxy (e.g. ftpproxy) and not just Squid handling ftp://-style requests. Multiple packages, with or without their version numbers, can be specified on the command line. In this case, all dependencies of all specified packages are cumulatively calculated, downloaded and installed via swinstall first, followed by the specified packages. The -u option will do the reverse of this (i.e. uninstall the parents specified using swremove and then uninstall their dependencies, if possible). OPTIONS The following options are recognised: -? or -h Display a syntax usage message. -a architecture By default, depothelper will assume that downloaded depots will be for the same architecture as the machine on which it is run. If this needs to be overridden, "hppa" (PA-RISC) or "ia64" (Itanium 2) can be specified as the preferred architecture. If a different architecture from the machine it is run on is specified, depothelper will also switch on the -n option (no installation) automatically. -b bitness By default, this release of depothelper will assume that you wish to download 32-bit binary depots on PA-RISC or 64-bit - 1 - Formatted: January 15, 2025 depothelper(1) depothelper(1) binary depots on Itanium. You can change this "bitness" by specifying 32 or 64, but note that only the Itanium HP-UX 11.31 platform will have 64-bit binary depots - all PA-RISC platforms will have 32-bit binary depots only. After 31st August 2018, depothelper will no longer support Itanium 32- bit binary depot downloads. -c cache_directory depothelper caches downloaded files in the /usr/local/lib/depothelper directory by default. Use this -c option to override the cache directory setting. -e expiry_days Downloaded depots are usually stored for 93 days (3 months) before being deleted. This can be overridden with the -e option and specifying "-e 0" will therefore effectively disable the cache. -f depothelper normally will not download any depot that is cached or install any depot that's already installed. However, if -f is supplied, it will always download all depots and install them all, regardless of the state of the cache or the depots already installed. -g This option upgrades all installed packages to their latest release. -l [package[-version]...] If just the -l option is supplied, depothelper will display a list of all installed packages and their dependencies. If one or more packages are specified with -l, then those packages and their dependencies will be listed, regardless as to whether they are installed or not. -n Specifying this option will skip the installation of depots i.e. they will be downloaded if necessary, but not installed. This is useful if one HP-UX box needs to be used to download packages to install another HP-UX box (use -a and -o to specify the architecture/OS of the other box if it's different). Tip: Make the cache directory available via NFS to other machines. That way, when one machine downloads the depots with "depothelper -n", the other(s) can install them later on with "depothelper" as well. If -n and -u are both specified, then a list of depots to be uninstalled will be shown instead of uninstalling them. -o os_version By default, depothelper will assume that downloaded depots will be for the same OS version as the machine on which it is run. If this needs to be overridden, 11.11, 11.23 or 11.31 can be specified as the preferred OS version. If a - 2 - Formatted: January 15, 2025 depothelper(1) depothelper(1) different OS version from the machine it is run on is specified, depothelper will also switch on the -n option (no installation) automatically. Note that after 31st August 2018, only HP-UX 11.31 will be supported. -p ftp_proxy_host:ftp_proxy_port If the machine depothelper is run on doesn't have a direct internet connection, then an FTP proxy can be used to download depots. This is specified as as an FTP proxy server's host and port, separated by a colin. Please note that this should be a "true" FTP proxy server (e.g. ftpproxy) and not just Squid handling ftp://-style requests. -r Any depot that is successfully installed will have its equivalent cache file deleted as well if this option is specified. -u Using this option will attempt to uninstall the specified packages using swremove and, if possible, uninstall their dependencies too. The parent packages specified on the command line will be uninstalled first and then any dependencies which have none of their parents still installed will be uninstalled afterwards. If -n and -u are both specified, then a list of depots to be uninstalled will be shown instead of uninstalling them. RETURN VALUE Successful execution of depothelper returns 0, but it fails it will return a value of 1, with an appropriate error message sent to stderr. WARNINGS There may be a bug with the "swlist" command when specified with no options on the Itanium 11.23 platform (yes, even with PHCO_38149 installed) - it seems to fail to list all the archive depots installed and this in turn may cause unnecessary re-installation of some depots on that platform when depothelper is run. This doesn't happen on any of the other platforms that depothelper supports. depothelper only currently runs on HP-UX i.e. you can't use, say, Linux to download and cache depots with it. This may change in a future release. AUTHOR Richard K. Lloyd <richard.lloyd@connectinternetsolutions.com> - 3 - Formatted: January 15, 2025