Standards

Solaris 2.5 conforms to a number of specifications sanctioned by standards bodies. Specifications evolve over time and generally Solaris maintains conformance to specifications from release to release. The following describes conformance changes in Solaris 2.5.

X/Open Commands and Utilities, Issue 4 (XCU4) Conformance

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For PowerPC systems - This feature is not available on PowerPC systems at this time.

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The utilities delivered with Solaris 2.5 conform to the XCU4 portion of the X/Open Portability Guide, Issue 4 specification from X/Open. If the behavior required by XCU4 conflicts with existing Solaris behavior, the original Solaris version is not changed, but a new version that is XCU4 compliant can be found in /usr/xpg4/bin. Therefore, when setting the PATH (sh or ksh) or path (csh) environment variables, /usr/xpg4/bin should precede any other directories in which XCU4 utilities are found, such as /usr/bin, /bin,

/usr/ucb and /usr/ccs/bin for applications that take advantage of XCU4 features. Note that XCU4 includes all of the utilities in IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 and IEEE Std 1003.2a-1992 (together, commonly called POSIX.2).

An XCU4 compliant implementation must include an ANSI X3.159-1989 (ANSI C Language) standard conforming compilation system and the cc and c89 utilities that are not part of Solaris 2.5.

When Solaris 2.5 is installed with SPARCompiler^(TM) 4.0 on a SPARC based platform, or with ProCompiler^(TM) C 3.0 and patch 102486-02 on an x86 based platform, and the application searches for standard utilities in the directories specified by the output of the getconf PATH command in the order specified from left to right, the utilities will behave as specified by POSIX.2.

POSIX Standards Conformance Updated to Include Threads Interfaces

Solaris 2.5 conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-1990 (System Application Program Interface (API) as amended by IEEE Std 1003.1b-1993 Realtime Extension), IEEE Std 1003.1c-1995 (Threads Extension) and IEEE Std 1003.1i (Technical Corrigenda to Realtime Extension). Users can now write portable multi-threaded applications.

Networking

The Solaris 2.5 release greatly expands network communication features.

Network File System, Versions 2 and 3

The Solaris 2.5 release is the first release that includes Version 3 of the NFS protocol. In addition, improvements have been made to Version 2 for this release. The following features have been added to or improved in the NFS product for 2.5.

• NFS ACL support
• NFS over TCP
• NFS Version 3
• Enhanced network lock manager
• XFN support through the automounter

Support for Access Control Lists

Access Control List (ACL) support has been added to the NFS software for the Solaris 2.5 release. The ACL software provides a more precise way of managing file access permissions. Both local (UFS) and remote (NFS) files can be protected.

NFS over TCP

The NFS software selects TCP as the transport protocol when possible. TCP is a reliable protocol and is much better for WANs. It provides congestion control and error recovery.

NFS Version 3

Version 3 of the NFS protocol is new for the Solaris 2.5 release. The new software provides several new features.

• Version 3 provides for safe asynchronous writes on the server. The new software improves response time, because the client does not have to wait for the server to commit the changes to disk before the operation returns.
• All operations in the NFS Version 3 software bring over the file attributes, which means that the need to do a separate operation to update this data in the cache happens less often. This reduces the number of RPC calls to the server and improves performance.

NFS Lock Manager

The new network lock manager provides improved UNIX record locking and PC file sharing when accessing NFS files. Commands that use record locking, like ksh and mail, are less likely to hang or have other difficulties with this new software.

Support for X/Open Federated Naming

The new automountd supports the X/Open specification for Federated Naming as applied to file systems.

For more information on these topics, see the NFS Administration Guide.

Point-to-Point Protocol

PPP allows you to link computers and networks at separate locations using modems and telephone lines. New levels of security for PPP use a series of added authentication keywords before allowing transmission over the link.

The first level of authentication, password authentication protocol (PAP), is the least secure. Passwords are sent over the circuit "in the clear" until authentication is acknowledged or the connection terminated.

The second level of security, challenge-handshake authentication protocol (CHAP) periodically verifies the identity of the peer (the other end of the point-to-point link). A challenge message is sent to the peer by the authenticator. The response is checked against a "secret" not sent over the link, and if the values match, authentication is acknowledged. Otherwise the link is terminated. The new features are integrated into the Solaris 2.5 PPP software release.

For more information, see the TCP/IP and Data Communications Administration Guide.

Telnet

4.4 BSD-Compatible telnet/telnetd

The telnet client has been upgraded to the 4.4 BSD version. The telnet server has been enhanced to support window size, display location, environment variable passing, and the logout option.

See the man pages telnetd(lM) and telnet(1) for information on new options.

Performance improvement for rlongind and telentd

On large servers, remote login capacity may improve by up to a factor of two due to an improved STREAMS architecture, which removes extra data copies present in early Solaris and BSD-derived UNIX systems.

Name Service Cache Daemon

The Name Service cache daemon (nscd) provides a local, configurable cache of frequently accessed name service information about hosts, users, and groups. This cache greatly improves the responsiveness of name service requests, particularly if large flat files or slow network naming services are used. The various cache parameters are tunable using a configuration file, /etc/nscd.conf.

For more information, see the nscd man pages.

Security

The Solaris 2.5 release increases password security.

NIS+ Password Update Daemon

The NIS+ Password Update Daemon supports secure password updates when using NIS+, and allows administrators to enforce password aging. The updates are made without requiring secure RPC credentials for normal users. Password update requests from NIS clients are also supported.

Optional password aging allows system administrators to

• Force a user to choose a new password the next time the user logs in.
• Specify a maximum number of days that a password can be used before it has to be changed.
• Specify a minimum number of days that a password has to be in existence before it can be changed.
• Specify that a warning message be displayed whenever a user logs in, for a specified number of days, before the user's password time limit is reached.
• Specify a maximum number of days that an account can be inactive. If that number of days passes without the user logging in to the account, the user's password is locked.
• Specify an absolute date after which a user's password cannot be used, thus denying the user the ability to log on to the system.

Some of these features were available under previous naming systems (/etc files and NIS) but are new to NIS+. Others are new to NIS+ and can only be used under NIS+.

For more information on this topic, see the NIS+ and FNS Administration Guide.

File Systems

Improved UFS Error Recovery

UNIX file system (UFS) has improved error detection and soft failure modes in Solaris 2.5. UFS is further enhanced by the automatic repair capabilities available in the Solstice DiskSuite product, packaged separately from Solaris. Error detection, locking, and unmounting are part of the Solaris 2.5 release.

UFS has been enhanced to increase total system availability by recognizing in-core and on-disk file system inconsistencies. It handles these by locking, repairing on-line, and unlocking the file system, rather than panicking the machine. With previous versions of UFS, if a panic occurs due to defective media or other conditions, the operation of the entire system is halted. In Solaris 2.5, only the operations of the processes using the affected file system are affected. All other user operations proceed normally.

If you do not have Solstice DiskSuite, file systems can be configured so that the system fails gracefully when filesystem inconsistencies are detected. You can enable lock-on-panic and manually run fsck (1M) to repair the file system. Access to the file system is then re-enabled.

For more information, see the man page fsck (1M) and mount_ufs(1m).

Interactive UFS Filesystem Debugger

Improved operation of fsdb_ufs a filesystem debugger that allows for the manual repair of a file system after a crash.

For more information, see the man page fsdb_ufs(1M).

UFS Access Control Lists

The ACL software provides a more precise way of managing file access permissions. Both local (UFS) and remote (NFS) files can be protected.

CacheFS Statistics

CacheFS (Cache File System) is a general purpose file system caching mechanism that improves NFS server performance and scalability by reducing server and network load. CacheFS statistics enable you to

• Determine an appropriate cache size
• Observe the performance of the cache

These two pieces of information help you determine the trade-off between your cache size and the desired performance of the cache.

For more information on CacheFS statistics, see the cachefslog (1m), cachefswssize (1m), and cachefsstat (1m) man pages. For information on CacheFS, see cfsadmin, mount_cachefs, and fsck_cachefs man pages.

Installation

Service Setup for Clients

The Solaris installation program (interactive and Custom JumpStart) no longer sets up services for clients. During installation, selecting the system type 'OS server' only allocates space for clients; to complete client setup you must use the Solstice AdminSuite Host Manager after Solaris software is installed locally. (Host Manager is part of Solstice AdminSuite which may be packaged with Solaris, depending on the product you've purchased.)

For more information, see the System Administration Guide, Volume I.

System Administration

System Administration Tools

The Admintool application has been extensively reworked in the Solaris 2.5 release. There are now separate tools for local and networked system administration.

• Admintool provides system administration for end users on their local systems. Admintool does not update the name service with changes.
• Solstice AdminSuite provides system administration on a network. Solstice AdminSuite updates the name service and is intended for a site that uses name services.

Admintool for Local System Administration

The Admintool application in the Solaris 2.5 software contains system administration tools for end users. It is meant to be used only for local (non-networked) system administration. It provides the capability to

• Add, remove, or modify local user accounts
• Add, remove, or modify the local /etc/groups file
• Add, remove, or modify hosts in the local /etc/hosts file
• Enable or disable access to local or remote printers
• Enable or disable local serial port services
• Add software to or remove software from the local system

For more information, see the Solaris Advanced User's Guide.

Solstice AdminSuite 2.1 for Networked System Administration

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For PowerPC systems - This feature is not available on PowerPC systems at this time.

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The Solstice AdminSuite 2.1 product is a suite of tools and supporting technologies that make it possible for system administrators to effectively manage system information in a network environment.

The Solstice AdminSuite 2.1 tools enable administrators to

• Manage any local or remote system's data from their own system
• Modify system data without "root" privileges using a special administration group
• Centralize system data using one of three name services--NIS, NIS+, or local /etc files

The components of the Solstice AdminSuite 2.1 product are

• Solstice AdminSuite 2.1 Tools
• Solstice Print Management 2.1

Solstice AdminSuite Tools The Solstice AdminSuite 2.1 product provides the following Motif graphical user interface tools:

• Database Manager to update network-related system files such as auto_home, ethers, netgroup, and locale files
• Group Manager to create and manage UNIX groups
• Host Manager to configure system information and add server support for diskless and dataless systems
• Serial Port Manager to configure serial port software for terminals and modems
• User Account Manager to create and manage user accounts
• Printer Manager to install, modify, and delete printer information from the local system or name service. When printers are installed with Printer Manager, they automatically become available to all print clients that are part of a name service. Printer Manager sets up LP print servers to manage printers.
• For more information see, Solstice AdminSuite 2.1 User's Guide and Solstice AdminSuite 2.1 Print Administration Guide.

Solstice Print Management The Solstice Print Management software provides tools and technologies that enable system administrators to centralize the administration of printers on a network. It is a complete replacement for the Solaris print software (LP), which requires per-client administration to access remote printers.

Besides the Printer Manager application, the Print Management software also includes the following components:

• Print Configuration Interface--Software that makes centralized print administration possible by registering printers with a name service (NIS or NIS+). Print clients don't need to be individually configured to print to remote printers.
• Print Commands--Direct replacements for many of the Solaris lp print commands. The new commands use the new print configuration interface to send print requests directly to print servers using the BSD protocol, which reduces the resources required on a print client to fill a print request. The number of print problems on print clients is also decreased.

Proc Tools

New process tools are available in /usr/proc/bin that display highly detailed information about the active processes stored in /proc, the process file system. These thirteen new process tools are similar to some options of the ps command, except that the output provided by the new tools is more detailed. For example, the tools can display fstat and fcntl information, working directories, and trees of parent and child processes. Additionally, the tools allow users to stop or resume processes. The proc(1) man pages describe these process tools in more detail.

The System Administration Guide, Volume II contains information about the /proc tools, including some sample procedures explaining how to use them.

The OpenWindows 3.5 Environment

OpenWindows 3.5 provides the same funtionality as the 3.4 release, with a few enhancements. The OpenWindows environment provides the following features:

• The OPEN LOOK Window Manager (olwm), a client to the X server, manages the following:

  · Window placement

  · Workspace Programs menu

  · Window and icon opening and closing

  · Application starting and exiting

  For more information, see the olwm(1) man page.

• Internationalization, which enables you to select the local language, time format, and numeric format for the workspace and the DeskSet applications.

  If you have a localized version of the Solaris 2.5 release, you can install localization packages that provide support for European or Asian locales.

• The X server, the platform of the OpenWindows environment for window applications.

  The X server is a program that is the foundation for the OpenWindows environment. It is the X11R5 sample server with a Display PostScript^(TM) (DPS) imaging system extension. The X server also includes several X extensions, a font server 0and DPS font enhancements.

• Solaris 2.5 AnswerBook software, a document viewing system for on-line documentation.
• Default key bindings for Motif on Sun.
• An executable, xmbind that allows you to change your keybindings without restarting olwm.

For more information, see the Xsun(1), Xserver(1), and X11(7) man pages.

Kodak Color Management System Calibrator Tool

The Kodak Color Management System (KCMS) calibrator tool provides adjustments for accurate color representation to scanners, color monitors, and other output devices. The tool adjusts color by measuring the luminance response of the red, green, and blue phosphors. These measurements are used to create and update profiles that represent valid visuals for the specific frame buffer.

To run the KCMS calibrator tool, you must either have the developer's cluster installed, or install the SUNWkcs package. You must also have a hardware calibrator to calibrate your monitor; otherwise you will only be able to view profiles.

For more information, see kcms_calibrate(1) man page and the Solaris Advanced User's Guide.

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Note - KCMS also runs on the co-packaged Common Desktop Environment.

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Graphics

The VISUAL^(TM) for Solaris environment includes several graphics and multimedia software foundation libraries. Foundation libraries are the lowest-level device-independent layer of the Solaris software. This level of interface is designed to support a wide variety of common functions. You can build higher-level libraries on top of the foundation libraries, or the foundation libraries can be used directly by a software application. These foundation libraries enable you to create applications that incorporate 2-D and 3-D graphics, imaging, and digital video. The libraries are the XGL graphics library (which serves as a foundation library for Solaris PEX) and XIL imaging library. The Solaris CD contains the PEX, XGL, and XIL runtime libraries.

SPARC: The PEX 3.0 Runtime Environment

The Solaris PEX 3.0 RTE consists of a PEX client-side runtime library (PEXlib) and a PEX server-extension shared-object file (Solaris PEX server). PEXlib is an API to PEX protocol as Xlib is to core X protocol. PEXlib provides application portability across hardware platforms and enables 3D graphics rendering on local and remote displays. The OpenWindows Version 3.5 X11 server automatically loads the PEX shared-object extension when it receives a PEX request from a PEX client.

The PEXlib implementation for Solaris 2.5 is based on PEXlib - Specification and C Language Binding: Version 5.1, available from the Massachusetts Institution of Technology (MIT). The PEX server extension is based on PEX Protocol Specification, Version 5.1.

Solaris PEX 3.0 RTE is included in the Solaris 2.5 release and should be installed if you are planning to

• Run PEXlib-based graphics client applications
• Display any 3D graphics from client applications that perform rendering on remote displays through the PEX protocol

To install PEX, choose the entire distribution software group when installing Solaris 2.5.

If installing, see SPARC: Solaris 2.5 Installation Notes or x86: Solaris 2.5 Installation Notes for special instructions.

For more information on PEX, see

• Solaris PEX Implementation Specification
• Solaris PEXlib Reference Manual
• CGE PEX 5.1 Portability Guide

Also, the following books are available at bookstores:

• PEXlib Programming Manual, O'Reilly and Associates, Inc.
• PEXlib Reference Manual, O'Reilly and Associates, Inc.

The XGL 3.2 Runtime Environment

The XGL library is a 2-D and 3-D immediate-mode API that provides application portability across hardware platforms and enables graphics applications to get optimal performance from graphics accelerators. XGL version 3.2 includes support for raster text, environment and vertex-level texture mapping, 4-component texture mapping, DGA transparent overlay, and triangle list Gcache.

The XGL 3.2 runtime environment (RTE) is included with the Solaris 2.5 release and should be installed if users at your site are running graphics applications. It is not always obvious whether an application requires the XGL RTE; therefore, you should install the XGL RTE if you are installing OpenWindows software, since an application may reference the XGL libraries.

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Note - The XGL 3.2 RTE lets you run XGL applications and is delivered with Solaris software. To develop XGL applications, you need the Solaris Software Developer Kit (SDK), a Solaris option that must be purchased separately.

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If installing, see SPARC: Solaris 2.5 Installation Notes or x86: Solaris 2.5 Installation Notes for special instructions.

For more information on XGL, see the XGL Programmer's Guide or the XGL Reference Manual.

The XIL 1.2.1 Runtime Environment

The XIL is an imaging library that provides a basic set of functions for imaging and video applications. The library provides a strategy for low-level software interfaces (foundation libraries) and enables APIs and API developers to port their code to these foundation libraries.

The Solaris 2.5 operating environment provides an improved version of the XIL library. Version 1.2.1 contains bug fixes and performance enhancements.

Enhanced Hardware Support

New Configurations

A wider range of new hardware configurations is supported. For SPARC systems, refer to SPARC: Installing Solaris Software and any additional information supplied by the manufacturer of your hardware. For x86 systems, refer to Solaris 2.5 x86 Hardware Compatibility List for details.

St Driver Supports Compatibility

Using the st driver, the system administrator now has the ability to add support for additional and future tape drive models without waiting for new versions of the binary driver. The st model is "user extensible" using a configuration file called /kernel/drv/st.conf.

The st driver also supports all tape positioning commands, and other control features needed for commercial backup software such as Legato Networker.

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For SPARC systems - St support is not new in Solaris 2.5.

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For more information on this feature, see the x86 Device Configuration Guide

SPARC: Support for SPARCstorage Array

The SPARCstorage^(TM) Array is a data-storage system that provides increased storage capacity, high performance, high availability, and manageability to various SPARCstation^(TM), SPARCserver^(TM), SPARCcenter^(TM), and SPARCcluster^(TM) systems.

In Solaris 2.5, installation is improved. You can install the Solaris 2.5 software environment either as a new installation or as an upgrade on systems so that the SPARCstorage Array is the boot device.

For more information, see the SMCC SPARC Hardware Platform Guide Solaris 2.5.

Miscellaneous Features

Generic features add to the list of enhancements implemented within Solaris 2.5.

Sendmail

The implementation of sendmail delivered in Solaris 2.5 includes several enhancements.

• Compatible with older SunOS or BSD V5 sendmail configuration files
• Enables all hosts at a given priority to be selected through an MX randomizer
• Support for ESMTP is allowed if requested by a peer
• Improved checkpointing during the delivery of mail, which reduces the amount of duplicate mail generated if a server fails

For more information on this topic, see the Mail Administration Guide.

X/Open Federated Naming Service

FNS provides support for flexible composition of different, autonomous naming systems into a single service, accessible using a single, simple naming system interface. FNS facilitates naming methods by encouraging the use of common naming policies. These interfaces and policies are used and shared by systems and applications, such as the file service and print service, to provide a view of the global and enterprise-wide namespaces in the Solaris environment.

The FNS includes:

• The FNS core technology
• Federated DNS
• Federated X.500

• FNS-based file naming
• FNS-based printer naming

For more information on this topic, see the Federated Naming Service Guide.

Nologin

System administrators can warn users about impending down-time when they have created an /etc/nologin file. If the file /etc/nologin exists, login prints the file's contents on the user's terminal and then exits. This is used by shutdown (1m) to stop logins when the system is about to go down.

Font Support

CID Fonts

Character Identification (CID) fonts are native support for Adobe's CID font format. CID fonts were designed for large character set fonts. Use CID fonts to improve performance over Type 0 (composite) fonts. CID fonts are available for Display PostScript System (DPS) clients only.

See the Adobe Technical Note #5092 (CID-Keyed Font File Format Overview) for more information.

XATM 3.0

The X Adobe Type Manager (XATM) interface allows X11 clients to access fonts such as Type 1 that are rendered by the DPS extension. Previous versions of XATM only allowed X11 clients to use Type 1 fonts. This version of XATM calls the PostScript interpreter directly to do font rasterization. This means that X11 clients can now use fonts that XDPS can handle, including Type 3, Type 0 (composite), and CID fonts.

Compatibility

SPARC: Binary Compatibility

More Solaris 1 binaries are now able to run on Solaris 2.5. This allows even more Solaris 1 applications to run without porting or recompiling.

Shell Script Compatibility

Some shell scripts from 4.x now work under 2.5. Some common utilities have been moved back to /usr/bin to allow old shell scripts to work unmodified, for example, /bin/hostname.

Performance

Time-Sharing

Performance work in Solaris 2.5 focused on improving the performance of the system under time-sharing workloads. As a result, many more users can now be supported on large machine configurations. NFS and desktop performance has improved significantly over previous releases.

KAIO

Kernel Asynchronous Input/Output (KAIO) is an implementation technique that improves the performance of asynchronous reads or writes for raw devices. The libaio implementation automatically uses this faster KAIO solution whenever possible. Any application that is already doing asynch IO to raw files will now automatically benefit by this improvement to libaio.