Introduction to IPS
After an initial installation of OpenSolaris 2008.11 operating system, you will find that
many of the software applications that you use on a regular basis are
not immediately available to you. These software applications are available as packages in
a repository for downloading and installing over the internet. A repository is a
source for packages.
The Image Packaging System enables users to connect to the repository and download
and install packages.
The OpenSolaris 2008.11 release uses IPS for its packaging system. Besides installing packages
from a repository, users can create and publish their own IPS packages, set
up an OpenSolaris repository, mirror an existing repository, and publish existing packages to
a repository.
Once you have installed packages, IPS enables you to search, update, and manage
packages on your system.
With IPS , you can upgrade your system to a newer build
of OpenSolaris, install and update your software to the latest available versions in
a repository, and retrieve packages from mirror repositories.
If the system on which IPS is installed is on the network,
IPS can automatically access the OpenSolaris repository. For the OpenSolaris 2008.11 release, your
IPS client can access the packages from https://pkg.opensolaris.org.
OpenSolaris 2008.11 Repositories
The following repositories are available for the OpenSolaris 2008.11 release:
https://pkg.opensolaris.org – Users can access this repository to download and install software that is specifically built to run on OpenSolaris 2008.11.
See Table 4-1 table for a list of repositories that contain security fixes, access to encumbered packages and third-party nonredistributable packages. Access to these repositories may require a key and a certificate. See the Chapter 4, Using Keys and Certificates for Repositories section to learn more.
