SWBIS(7)
Contents
swbis -- Distributed Software Administration
swbis <sw_utility> [options] [software_selections] [@targets]
<sw_utility> [options] [software_selections] [@targets]
swbis is a network transparent software administration system for
GNU/Linux systems and systems that are UNIX system-like. It implements
the Open Group's CAE Spec C701 (XDSA) Distributed Software
Administration. This spec closely follows ISO/IEC 15068-2:1999 (now
withdrawn) which was identical to IEEE 1387.2:1995. The implementation
relies on POSIX functionality as provided by a typical GNU system. It
has security enhancement extensions that use GNU Privacy Guard.
Although swpackage is a self-contained tar writing utility and
swinstall will use generic tar for file loading, several features are
based on bit-for-bit sameness with the GNU tar POSIX tar interchange
format, hence, GNU tar is a special tool requirement for swbis
(although for most uses of the system tar utility, only generic options
are specified).
The selection@target syntax supports multiple selections and targets.
The same selection spec applies to all the targets. A single
'Commercial at' '@' separates the two lists. Software selections apply
within a single distribution tarball or within a single directory
representing installed software. Software selections don't specify a
source file. The source file is specified by a separate option for
utilites that use the target as a destination, and by the target if
the source is the destination.
Software Selections
Software Selections specify, by a software_spec, objects which to
operate. A software_spec consists of a period '.' delimited list of
tags followed by a comma and a comma delimited list of version
identifiers for revision, qualifier, vendor_tag, architecture,
location, denoted by the letters r,q,v,a,l.
The important tags of familiar repute are product.tag and
product.revision along with an optional product.vendor_tag. These
correspond to RPMTAG_NAME, RPMTAG_VERSION, and RPMTAG_RELEASE
attributes. These are specified in a software_selection by example
thusly:
# Note: Quotes are needed to prevent command-line interpretation
"*" # all packages
r==3.1 # Any package with revision 3.1
somepackage # all packages named 'somepackage'
somepackage,r">"2 # and revision greater than 2
somepackage,r">"2,r"<"3 # and revision greater than 2 and less than 3
somepackage,r">"2,v=hal # and by vendor 'hal'
Logical alternation or 'OR' is supported by using a second
software_spec on the command line. software_specs are separated by
whitespace.
Targets
Targets are hosts or files on a host. The syntax follows the familiar
host:file convention but differs in that an unadorned name is a host
not a file. To impose interpretation as a file prefix with a colon ':'
or use an absolute path (i.e. prefix with '/').
Source and Target Specification and Logic
Synopsis:
Posix:
host[:path]
host
host:
/path # Absolute path
Swbis Extension:
[user@]host[:path]
[user@]host_port[:path]
:path
Swbis Multi-hop Target Extension:
# ':' is the target delimiter
# '_' delimits a port number in the host field
[user@]host[@@[user@]host[@@...]][:file]
[user@]host_port[@@[user@]host[@@...]][:file]
# Using ':', a trailing colon is used to
# disambiguate between a host and file.
# For Example,
:file
host:
host
host:file
host:host:
host_port:host_port:
host:host:file
user@host:user@host:
user@host:user@host:host:
user@host:user@host:file
A more formal description:
target : HOST_CHARACTER_STRING ':' PATHNAME_CHARACTER_STRING
| HOST_CHARACTER_STRING ':'
| HOST_CHARACTER_STRING
| PATHNAME_CHARACTER_STRING
| ':' PATHNAME_CHARACTER_STRING # Impl extension
;
PATHNAME_CHARACTER_STRING must be an absolute path unless
a HOST_CHARACTER_STRING is given. Allowing
a relative path is a feature of the swbis
implementation.
NOTE: A '.' as a target is an implementation
extension and means extract in current
directory.
NOTE: A '-' indicating stdout/stdin is an
implementation extension.
NOTE: A ':' in the first character indicates a filename.
This is an implementation extension.
HOST_CHARACTER_STRING is an IP or hostname.
Examples:
Copy the distribution /var/tmp/foo.tar.gz at 192.168.1.10
swcopy -s /var/tmp/foo.tar.gz @192.168.1.10:/root
Implementation Extension Syntax (multi ssh-hop) :
Syntax:
%start wtarget # the Implementation Extension Target
# Note: a trailing ':' forces interpretation
# as a host, not a file.
wtarget : wtarget DELIM sshtarget
| sshtarget
| sshtarget DELIM
;
sshtarget : user '@' target # Note: only the last target
| target # may have a PATHNAME, and only a host
; * may have a user
target : HOST_CHARACTER_STRING
| PATHNAME_CHARACTER_STRING
;
user : PORTABLE_CHARACTER_STRING # The user name
DELIM : ':' # The multi-hop delimiter.
;
Unpack a tarball on host1 and host2:
swcopy -s :somepackage-1.0.tar.gz --extract @ host1 host2
List installed entries matching the software selections:
swlist somepackage,"r>2" @ host1:/ host2:/
swlist "kde*" @ 192.168.2.2
List the architectures of the specified hosts:
swlist -x verbose=3 -a architecture @ localhost 192.168.2.2 host1 host2
Install a package from stdin to a location, l=/unionfs/foo-1.0, and a
"exp" qualification:
swinstall q=exp,l=/unionfs/foo-1.0 @ 192.168.2.2
Remove a package named somepackage
swremove somepackage @ 192.168.2.2:/
Make a tarball according to the recipe file myPSF:
swpackage -s myPSF @- | tar tvf -
POSIX Commands
Utilities specified by C701 and ISO/IEC 15068-2:1999 include the
following:
o swpackage(8)
Create a tarball according to a recipe file.
o swcopy(8)
Copy a distribution from host to host.
o swverify(8)
Verify a software distribution signature.
o swinstall(8)
Install a software distribution.
o swlist(8)
List software information.
o swremove(8)
Remove packages
Swbis Specific Commands
Utilities unique to swbis.
o swign(1)
Create the signed meta-data directory, catalog/, of the
contents of the current directory and optionally write the
entire directory, including the signed catalog as a tar
archive.
o <libexecdir>/swbis/swbistar
Archive writing (creation) utility, useful for testing.
o <libexecdir>/swbis/swbisparse
Stand-alone parser of POSIX Metadata files, useful for
testing.
o <libexecdir>/swbis/arf2arf
Archive decoder/checker, Used by swverify.
o <libexecdir>/swbis/lxpsf
Archive translator, used by swpackage to translate RPM
packages.
Configuration Files
All of the utilities share the same configuration files: swdefaults and
swbisdefaults. The files are sourced on the local management host and
ignored (if present) on the remote target host. Below are commands that
give information about them. All the utilities support these options
and the defaults are separate for each utility, swcopy is shown as an
example.
swcopy --show-options-files # Show locations of existing files to stdout
swcopy --show-options # Show options with a shell assignment syntax
swcopy --no-defaults --show-options # Show builtin defaults
The syntax is:
# Comment
# Here optionName applies to all utilities
# the whitespace around the '=' is optional
optionName = value # Comment
# In addition a option can be applied to a specific utility
# overriding the general one and the built-in default
swutilityName.optionName = value
Strategy for Compatibility with Existing Hosts
The most important utiltities on which swbis relies is a POSIX shell,
the system /bin/sh, and the system tar utility, usually /bin/tar. The
POSIX shell need not be /bin/sh.
The POSIX shell must have specific compliance to POSIX described the
POSIX sh(1) manual page (IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 Edition, Section STDIN)
regarding its use of stdin when it invokes a command that also uses
stdin. GNU Bash, public-domain ksh (pdksh), OpenSolaris
/usr/xpg4/bin/sh, ATT ksh (latest version such as 93t+ 2010年03月05日)
have this feature. Other shells including ash, dash, and /bin/sh on
BSD, UNIX(tm), BusyBox systems do not.
Therefore, the most reliable and least intrusive strategy is use the
auto-detection option. If a host does not contain bash or a suitable
ksh or sh the distributed utility will fail.
swbis_no_getconf = true # true or false, false=use getconf
swbis_shell_command = detect # {detect|sh|bash|posix|ksh}
Alternatively, simply make /bin/bash a requirement on all hosts and
set
swbis_no_getconf = true # true or false, false=use getconf
swbis_shell_command = bash # {detect|sh|bash|posix|ksh}
NOTE: The shell requirement does not apply to the user's account shell
(specified in /etc/passwd), although there are reasons this shell
should be a Bourne compatible shell. See Acount Login Shell below
Regarding tar, it is used for file loading (installation) and also
during verfication of installed software (as a means to copy and
inspect the installed files state). For installation, any tar will
work as no non-traditional options are specified.
The configuration options, in swbisdefaults allow some flexibilty here
swbis_local_pax_write_command = tar # {pax|tar|star|gtar}
swbis_remote_pax_write_command = tar # {pax|tar|star|gtar}
swbis_local_pax_read_command = tar # {pax|tar|star|gtar}
swbis_remote_pax_read_command = tar # {pax|tar|star|gtar}
swverify.swbis_local_pax_write_command = detect # {pax|tar|star|gtar}
swverify.swbis_remote_pax_write_command = detect # {pax|tar|star|gtar}
swlist.swbis_local_pax_write_command = detect # {pax|tar|star|gtar}
swlist.swbis_remote_pax_write_command = detect # {pax|tar|star|gtar}
This allows keeping and using the system '/bin/tar', and only using GNU
tar or pax for verification and listing.
Other important options are:
swcopy.swbis_allow_rpm = true # Enable automatic translation
swinstall.swbis_allow_rpm = true # Enable automatic translation
swcopy.swbis_no_audit = true # Copy as arbitrary data, true or false
swbis_remote_shell_client = ssh # {ssh|rsh}
swbis_forward_agent = true # Set ssh -A for multi-hop (>1) jumps
Here is a incomplete explanation of each option
o Extended Option: swbis_local_pax_read_command
Extended Option: swbis_remote_pax_read_command
If installing on a system, any tar will work. GNU tar is
required when using swign to create a signed archive or
directory. If pax is selected as the archive read command
(for installing), errors will be returned if the installation
is not by a root user (or if not root, if the package
contained files with different ownerships than the current
user).
swbis_local_pax_read_command = tar #{pax|tar|gtar}
swbis_remote_pax_read_command= tar #{pax|tar|gtar}
o Extended Option: swbis_local_pax_write_command
Extended Option: swbis_remote_pax_write_command
swcopy and swinstall may use the system tar (which may not be
GNU tar or pax). swpackage is self-contained and does not
use any file system tar-like utility. swign does not read
the options files and assumes and requires that tar is GNU
tar. swlist and swverify requires either GNU tar or pax and
can be set to detect a suitable tar or pax.
swlist.swbis_local_pax_write_command=detect #{pax|tar|gtar|detect}
swlist.swbis_remote_pax_write_command=detect #{pax|tar|gtar|detect}
swverify.swbis_local_pax_write_command=detect #{pax|tar|gtar|detect}
swverify.swbis_remote_pax_write_command=detect #{pax|tar|gtar|detect}
swbis_local_pax_write_command = tar #{pax|tar|gtar}
swbis_remote_pax_write_command= tar #{pax|tar|gtar}
o Extended Option: swbis_shell_command
This may be one of detect, bash, ksh, sh, or posix. detect
is the best choice. ksh must be public domain ksh or ATT
ksh93 (version 2009年05月05日 or newer). Older versions of ksh93
do not have the required POSIX feature.
o Account Login Shell
The login shell may be any shell, however, if a host will
ever be a intermediate host in a multi-hop target, then it
should be a Bourne compatible or POSIX conforming shell.
This requirement is due to the escapement and processing of
shell special characters which are performed by the login
shell of the intermediate host account.
o Extended Option: swbis_forward_agent
The default value is True. This sets the -A in the ssh
client for multi-hop targets. There are security
considerations when forwarding the authentication agent.
The swbis distributed utilties have no special requirements and will
operate on any full-size OpenSolaris, BSD or GNU/Linux host. You may
immediately and remotely distribute and manage packages on these hosts
with nothing more than a login account and a ssh connection. Below are
the technical details. The configuration file options to allow this
are the built-in defaults, certain values in historic versions of the
defaults file, swbisdefaults, may break this functionality.
The swbis distributed utilities require bash, public domain ksh, or
Sun's /usr/xpg4/bin/sh to be present on the target host. If the
swbis_shell_command extended option is set to 'detect' you don't have
to know which one is present, otherwise you may specify one explicitly.
swbis_shell_command=detect #{posix|sh|bash|ksh|detect}
Tar or pax is used for file loading (installation) and internally for
data transfer. You may specify which one. swlist and swverify require
either GNU tar or pax be present on a host. You may set auto detection
for this requirement. As of release 1.12 (c.August 2014), all
invocations of the system tar utility for archive creation use the
'--format=pax' option of GNU tar. A test is made for GNU tar and
generic options are used if no suitable version of GNU tar is present
allowing generic tar to work.
swlist.swbis_local_pax_write_command=detect #{pax|tar|gtar|detect}
swlist.swbis_remote_pax_write_command=detect #{pax|tar|gtar|detect}
swverify.swbis_local_pax_write_command=detect #{pax|tar|gtar|detect}
swverify.swbis_remote_pax_write_command=detect #{pax|tar|gtar|detect}
swinstall.swbis_local_pax_write_command = tar #{pax|tar|gtar}
swinstall.swbis_remote_pax_write_command= tar #{pax|tar|gtar}
swinstall.swbis_local_pax_read_command = tar #{pax|tar|gtar}
swinstall.swbis_remote_pax_read_command = tar #{pax|tar|gtar}
A POSIX awk is required, and with the ability to specify several
thousand bytes of program text as a command argument. GNU awk works,
as does the ATT Awk book awk, and the awk on BSD systems. See the
INSTALL file for further details regarding a small issue with the
OpenSolaris (c.2006) awk.
GNU Privacy Guard, gpg is required for verification and signing. Use
of the passphrase agent gpg-agent is supported so as to avoid telling
swpackage your passphrase. When swverify uses gpg, a FIFO is
constructed and deleted. /dev/null and /dev/zero are required.
Verification takes place on the management host. It would not be used
on the (remote) target host.
For verifying package tarballs, only swverify and gpg is required. For
verifying the unpacked tarball (i.e. as a signed directory) GNU tar,
awk, sha1sum, md5sum (or openssl) and various other utilities are
required.
When a host is participating in remote connections via ssh/rsh, either
as the terminal target host or intermediate host, the login shell for
the user must be a Bourne compatible shell, for example /bin/sh. Most
traditional Bourne shell's are acceptable as /bin/sh, one notable
exception is /bin/ash when operating on the terminal host (due to its
read block size). However, /bin/dash, BSD /bin/sh, and Sun's /bin/sh
are all acceptable. Note that /bin/sh need not be the system POSIX
shell.
As stated above, a POSIX shell is required and the only suitable
implementations (as of Sep 2010) are /bin/bash, /bin/ksh (Public Domain
or ksh93 v.2009年05月05日 or newer), Sun's /usr/xpg4/bin/sh, and MirBSD
Korn Shell (/bin/mksh) all assumed to be in these locations.
Background
The spec describes a format for storing package meta-data in a software
distribution and a set of utilities. The meta-data is stored in-band
for format level compatibility. The meta-data is separated by
placement in a specially named directory, catalog/. The spec goes
further and describes how multiple products, for example a distribution
archive containing products for multiple architectures, can be placed
in a separate control directories within the distribution archive.
This is supported along with an extension to allow these directories to
be nil collapsing the layout into the familiar form of a free software
tarball or run-time distribution directly installable by tar. When the
collapsed form is used, the in-band catalog/ directory is next to (in
the same directory as) the payload files hence "catalog" becomes a
reserved word for package files.
While the swbis system has features comparable with package managers,
it has features that are of general purpose usefulness to system
administrators and developers. These include host-to-host copying of
file system directories, advanced tarball creation methods, backward
compatibility with uses of plain tarballs, and the capability to act as
a directory content integrity checker, and the ability to translate and
install RPM format packages.
Distributed Software Administration
The XDSA spec describes a syntax for distributed operations, but does
not specify any implementation approach to the problem of remote
command invocation. The approach taken by swbis is to require nothing
that is not already present on all POSIX systems. To that end, swbis
uses rsh (or ssh) for remote connections and uses bash (A POSIX shell)
for command processing specifically using the 'bash -s' invocation for
all operations. Using bash in this manner casts all swbis utilties as
programs that dynamically write and deliver shell program code to the
remote 'bash -s' through its standard input, which can be a secure ssh
channel. This eliminates the requirement that swbis be installed on
the remote target host.
A Directory Content Checker
The swign program creates the catalog/ directory which is, in effect, a
GPG signed manifest of the directory. GNU tar is then used to recreate
the signed and digest byte streams from the directory contents which
are never removed nor altered (except for the creation of catalog/). It
is able to do so because swpackage, which generated the original byte
streams, matches GNU tar's output bit-for-bit. For example:
swign -D /usr/local/bin/checkdigest.sh -o "" -g "" -u "Test User" @.
swverify --order-catalog -d @.
# If your file system is Ext2, then --order-catalog
# is not required.
The checkdigest.sh is a distributor specific shell script that is run
by swverify if it is present and part of the signed stream.
checkdigest.sh then checks the archive MD5 and SHA1. If this fails, it
checks the individual files' MD5 and SHA1 digests. [In current
versions of checkdigest, the ownerships and permissions are not
checked individually, as swign was originally intended as a source
directory/archive signer tool.]
Use as a SCM (e.g. CVS, svn. etc) security tool easily follows by
making catalog/ a tracked directory in the SCM. The catalog directory
is updated using the swign command.
export SWPACKAGEPASSFD
SWPACKAGEPASSFD=agent
export GNUPGNAME
GNUPGNAME="Your Name"
swign --name-version=somepackage-1.1 -s PSF.in --no-remove @.
See the swign manual page for an example PSF.in file.
Package Security
As implementation extensions, swbis supports creation and verification
of tar archives with embedded digital signatures, and cryptographic
digests of the archive (payload) and individual files. The design
supports multiple signatures (each signing an identical byte stream)
and offers full package life-cycle relevance, that is, the signature
and the signed bytes are transferred into the installed catalog.
Extensibility
The distribution form is extensible at the format and layout levels.
Additional distributor specific attributes (i.e. keywords) are allowed
in the meta-data files, and distributor specific control files are
allowed in the meta-data directory file layout. The security files are
implemented as control files. This allows adding new stronger
cryptograpic digests in the file layout while preserving back
compatibility. The format, POSIX tar, is extensible by adoption of the
Extended Header Format specified in later POSIX revisions.
Support for Unprivileged Users
Support for unprivileged users is treated as a requirement. swpackage
does not use a central repository and makes no copies of the source
files. The utilities support alternate target paths and all activity
is confined within the target path. swinstall supports the location
attribute which locates the installed files in target path but uses the
installed software catalog at the un-located target path. Access to
the installed software catalog can be controlled via the catalog
directory sticky bit per local administrative policy.
Swbis is a copyrighted work. Non-copyright holders may use and make
copies under the terms of the GNU GPL
Swbis is a concatenation of the command name prefix 'sw' with the
Italian suffix 'bis' meaning again, or one more time.
Pronunciation: /es dub-u bis/
sw - bis
POSIX packaging - Play it again, One more time
IEEE Std 1387.2-1995 (ISO/IEC 15068-2:1999),
Open Group CAE C701,
http://www.opengroup.org/publications/catalog/c701.htm
info swbis
sw(5), swpackage(8), swbisparse(1), swign(1), swverify(8), swcopy(8)
swbis(1), swconfig(8), swlist(8), swremove(8)
.../libexec/swbis/lxpsf
.../libexec/swbis/arf2arf
.../libexec/swbis/swbisparse
.../libexec/swbis/swbistar
http://www.gnu.org/software/swbis/sourcesign-1.2/gendocs/manual/index.html
/var/lib/swbis/catalog/ # The installed software catalog
catalog/ # The package meta-data directory
swdefaults # Options configuration file
swbisdefaults # Options configuration file
swbis(7)
Author: Jim Lowe Email: jhlowe at acm.org
Version: 1.13
Last Updated: 2008年04月18日
Copying: GNU Free Documentation License
Not everything is implemented yet.
SWBIS(7)