chsysinfo(ADM)


chsysinfo -- change system name and version for applications

Syntax

/usr/sbin/chsysinfo [ osr5 | osr6 | uw7 | ou8 | default ]

Description

The chsysinfo command provides the ability to change the system name, version, and release number strings kept in system data structures. This is usually necessary only when installing applications that were designed to run on predecessor operating systems. You must be logged in as root to use this command.

Note that there are two methods for changing the system name for applications, the SCOMPAT environment variable and the chsysinfo command:


SCOMPAT
The SCOMPAT environment variable can be used to set system name and version returned by the uname command. The change applies only to the current process and its child processes, and is sufficient for any legacy application that only uses the command level interface to query the system name and version. See the uname(C) manual page.

chsysinfo
The chsysinfo command changes the values returned by the uname command, and the system name, version, and release returned by the confstr(S), sysinfo(S), and uname(S) system calls. This more pervasive change is required only if the application being installed uses the above system calls to query the system name, version, or release.

Because the changes made by chsysinfo are effective system wide, they apply to all currently running applications and applications started following the changes. Applications that make use of confstr(S), sysinfo(S), and uname(S) to determine the supported features of the operating system may fail or behave unexpectedly. Such Kernel OS "spoofing" should be kept to the minimum time possible to complete the installation. System information values should be reset to the default values at the earliest convienent time.

Changes made by chsysinfo do not persist across a reboot of the system. Upon reboot, the system will always have the default system name and version values specified in the file /etc/conf/pack.d/name/space.c.

Options

The following options are supported and change the system name and version as indicated to support application installation intended for the following systems:

option system name version
release    
osr5 SCO_SV 5.0.7
3.2    
osr6 SCO_SV 6.0.0
5    
uw7 UnixWare 7.1.4
5    
ou8 OpenUNIX 8.0.2
5    
default SCO_SV 6.0.0
5    

 +--------+-------------+---------+
 |option  | system name | version |
 +--------+-------------+---------+
 |osr5    | SCO_SV      | 5.0.7   |
 +--------+-------------+---------+
 |osr6    | SCO_SV      | 6.0.0   |
 +--------+-------------+---------+
 |uw7     | UnixWare    | 7.1.4   |
 +--------+-------------+---------+
 |ou8     | OpenUNIX    | 8.0.2   |
 +--------+-------------+---------+
 |default | SCO_SV      | 6.0.0   |
 +--------+-------------+---------+

Usage

The intent of chsysinfo is to enable the installation of applications that make install time checks for a particular system name, version, or release via either command line utilities or system calls.

The installation of an application might fail with an error indicating that the installer detected an unsupported operating system version. The chsysinfo command can be used to allow the application to install. For example, if the installer requires a system version of "5.0.7", you could do the following:

   chsysinfo osr5
   custom [options]
   chsysinfo default

The first chsysinfo command changes the system name to "SCO_SV", version to "5.0.7", and release to "3.2". After the package is installed with custom, the second chsysinfo command returns these parameters to the default values.

Files


/etc/conf/pack.d/name/space.c
file containing the values for system name and version used at boot time

References

confstr(S), sysinfo(S), uname(C), uname(S)
© 2007 The SCO Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
SCO OpenServer Release 6.0.0 -- 05 June 2007