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Re: Netscape install (applies generically)
Hi Mario-
I recommend installing Netscape once per OS (or major OS version)
into an NFS-mounted directory.
I suggest you do NOT add anything to a general user-login
LD_LIBRARY_PATH -- that way lies madness. Instead, wrap
netscape-the-binary with netscape-the-sh-or-other-script,
and set LD_LIBRARY_PATH within the script.
When folks use LD_LIBRARY_PATH in user environments it
can break well behaved and well configured applications.
It paints with too broad a brush. LD_LIBRARY_PATH can
provide point solutions for applications -- set in
wrapper scripts.
For example, say LD_LIBRARY_PATH includes /usr/openwin/lib.
And then you run an X program that is dynamically linked with
libX11 from X11 R6.4. This can fail -- one libX11 is not
necessarily the same as the other, even if both are
correctly built and installed. Just say no :-)
I have included a netscape shell wrapper as an attachment.
Improve on it as you need!
obejas@phylum.rsc.raytheon.com said:
> I manage quite a few workstations and servers, in engineering
> workgroup settings. Typically, each workgroup is ~50-100 engineers,
> and these usually correspond to a NIS group. The workgroups I manage
> are primarily Solaris based, though I have one Debian Linux based
> group and a sprinkling of HP-UX hosts.
> We've been upgrading to Solaris 8 which includes Netscape 4.7 as part
> of the standard install. The problem is that Netscape will continue
> to upgrade their browser and their partners will continue to upgrade
> their plug-ins. As I see it, if I want to keep current, I need to
> implement a Standard Install(tm) and then decide what to do with it.
> I think I have essentially three ways to go about this: a. NFS mount
> the Standard Install(tm) b. Replicate the Standard Install(tm), e.g.,
> via rdist, etc. c. Install independently on each individual
> workstation, like most Debian Linux packages.
> I'd rather do (a) and avoid (c). But I want to know if I'm fighting a
> trend.
> The plug-in directory becomes another item in my LD_LIBRARY_PATH
> either way.
> Right now, I've got netscape local everywhere on my linux systems and
> netscape NFS mounted on the Solaris systems. My preference is to use
> one methodology.
> Since I'm not worried about performance issues with netscape
> specifically, that is not a factor in favor of a local install in
> this instance. Otherwise, I think this is a generic question, i.e.,
> substitute Package_X for netscape in the question.
> On the Solaris side, I've been exploiting NFS for years. Typically,
> there is an INSTALL_DIR for a package, and we automount it. But since
> I started using Debian Linux, it seems like all packages are
> distributed with a "disk is cheap and so is maintenance" local
> installation bias. So now that Solaris is throwing more packages into
> the /usr/dt/bin tree, I'm wondering why they decided against an NFS
> mount or INSTALL_DIR approach. Did I miss the boat?
I believe Sun has not addressed the shared-toolbox idea of NFS
in any of their tool installations. Everything goes under /opt
or /usr. We have to hack around this if we want to automount
Sun std stuff.
You might look into some of the software package tools available.
We use opt_depot (older version). There are many others.
You might find some good surveys on the topic by looking at
old Usenix papers at www.usenix.org.
#!/bin/sh
# Pandora Toolbox wrapper script for:
# Netscape Communicator 4.7
#
# $Id: netscape,v 1.6 1999/11/01 19:41:13 pandora Exp $
#
# This is a ptools-1.0 component.
# NOTE: We provide the tcltk plugin and pdf plugin for netscape users!
# Use a symbolic link to the acrobat directory for the pdf plugin,
# and install the tcltkplug-2.0-* for each version of Netscape.
PKGDIR=/tool/pandora/.package/netscape-communicator-4.7
# HP-UX 9, SunOS 4, and AIX 4 latest version 4.05; Linux 2 uses 4.61;
everything else uses the latest
case `uname -r` in
A.09.05) PKGDIR=/tool/pandora/.package/netscape-communicator-4.05;;
4.1.*) PKGDIR=/tool/pandora/.package/netscape-communicator-4.05;;
1*) PKGDIR=/tool/pandora/.package/netscape-communicator-4.05;;
2*) PKGDIR=/tool/pandora/.package/netscape-communicator-4.61;;
esac
# Set/Unset environment variables
case `uname -s` in
# Needed for adobe acrobat plugin which uses libc.so.5
Linux) LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/lib:/usr/lib:/usr/X11R6/lib:/usr/i486-linux-libc5/lib
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH;;
esac
SHLIB_PATH=
PTVER=1.0
MOZILLA_HOME="$PKGDIR/app"
APP="$MOZILLA_HOME/netscape"
XKEYSYMDB="$MOZILLA_HOME/XKeysymDB"
NPX_PLUGIN_PATH="$HOME/.netscape/plugins:$MOZILLA_HOME/plugins"
# Export custom variables
export MOZILLA_HOME XKEYSYMDB NPX_PLUGIN_PATH
if test -f ${APP}
then
${APP} -install "$@"
else
echo "$0: Pandora error (ptools-$PTVER): $APP file not found"
fi
Quentin Fennessy Quentin.Fennessy@amd.com
Voice: 512.602.3873
Pager: 512.622.6316