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AIX Version 4.3 Installation Guide

Error Messages and Output from the installp Command

When the installp command is run from the SMIT installation menus, the Command Status screen shows Command: OK if all of the installations that are attempted by the command are successful. It shows Command: Failed if any of the attempted installations fail. These messages are generated when the installp return codes are zero and nonzero, respectively.

Note that a Command: OK message does not mean that all products in the input list for installp were installed. A Command: Failed message means that the installation of at least one product was started but did not complete. If a product's installation is never started, the Command: OK message may be displayed even though the product is not installed. However, other error messages may be displayed for products for which the installation cannot be started. Errors that can cause a product installation not to be started include errors such as the necessary requisites not being installed, the specified product being missing from the installation media, or the product already being installed at the specified level.

As well as displaying error messages from the installp command, the Command Status screen also displays many informational messages from installp on the progress of the product installations. The output from the installp command can be quite long, and it is recommended that the output be sent to a file when installp is run from the command line. When run from the SMIT installation menus, the output from installp is stored in the smit.log file. If you used the su command to become the root user, then the smit.log file is in the home directory.

A summary report is given at the end of the installation process. This report lists the status of each of the product installations that was attempted. For those products that could not be installed or whose installation failed, you can search for the cause in the detailed messages that appear during the installation process.

The output from the installp command contains both a preinstallation and post-installation summary. To determine if there were any products for which the installation could not begin, check the messages in the preinstallation summary. This information shows a statistic for those products for which installation was not attempted due to missing requisite software or other requisite problems. Once preinstallation checking is complete, you will see a message similar to The following software products will be applied: (this message varies depending on the installation action that is taken).

The error messages in the preinstallation and post-installation summaries reveal the installation status of all products included in the input list. If any failures are noted in these summaries, search on "FAIL" in the installp command's output to locate where the source of the failure is documented.

An example summary report is given below, along with the command that produced it.

# installp -acd/usr/sys/inst.images sx25.rte
  
Installation Summary
--------------------
Name                 Level          Part       Event    Result 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
bos.net.tcp.client   4.1.0.0        USR        APPLY    SUCCESS 
bos.net.tcp.client   4.1.0.0        ROOT       APPLY    SUCCESS 
bos.sysmgt.smit      4.1.0.0        USR        APPLY    SUCCESS 
bos.sysmgt.loginlic  4.1.0.0        USR        APPLY    SUCCESS 

The summary report that identifies the software that was acted upon gives the following information:

The Event column of the summary report identifies the action that has been requested of the installp command. The following values may be found in this column:

Event Definition
APPLY An attempt was made to apply the specified fileset.
COMMIT An attempt was made to commit the specified fileset.
REJECT An attempt was made to reject the specified fileset.
CLEANUP An attempt was made to perform cleanup for the specified fileset.

The Result column of the summary report gives the result of installp performing the requested action. It can have the following values:

Result Definition
SUCCESS Specified action succeeded.
FAILED Specified action failed.
CANCELLED Although preinstallation checking passed for the specified fileset, it was necessary to cancel the specified action before it was begun. Interrupting the installation process with Ctrl-C can sometimes cause a cancelled action, although, in general, a Ctrl-C interrupt causes unpredictable results. The cancelled installation of an update can be attempted again later in the installation process if a new installp program is being installed.
Note: CANCELLED is also displayed if you are installing an installp fix.

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