Creating Additional Preferences Files

Creating Additional Preferences Files

You can create and store additional copies of .swmgrrc to tailor preferences for a particular system or for individual users. When multiple copies of .swmgrrc exist, the settings that they contain are added to the settings in $rbase/var/inst/.swmgrrc. If conflicting settings are recorded for a particular preference, the most user-specific setting takes precedence, as explained below.

You or individual users can create additional .swmgrrc files in these locations, in order of highest to lowest precedence:

$HOME/.swmgrrc: Contains preference settings for all installation sessions that the user initiates (except miniroot installations) and resides in the user's home directory on the target system. Takes precedence over settings in $rbase/var/inst/.swmgrrc, /var/inst/.swmgrrc, and $rbase/$HOME/.swmgrrc.
$rbase/$HOME/.swmgrrc: Contains an individual user's preference settings for miniroot installations and resides in a special home directory for the installation (a subdirectory of the root directory for the newly installed software, such as $rbase/var/people/$HOME, for example). Takes precedence over settings in $rbase/var/inst/.swmgrrc and /var/inst/.swmgrrc.
/var/inst/.swmgrrc: Contains preference settings that are used for all installations performed on the target by any user. Whereas the effects of the $rbase/var/inst/.swmgrrc file are restricted to the root directory for the new software ($rbase), /var/inst/.swmgrrc affects installations to any filesystem on the target.

When Inst or Software Manager is invoked, existing .swmgrrc files are read in this order:

/var/inst/.swmgrrc
$rbase/var/inst/.swmgrrc
$rbase/$HOME/.swmgrrc
$HOME/.swmgrrc

When preference settings are added to .swmgrrc, the new values are recorded in the file that was opened last. As a result, preference settings are recorded in the most localized version of the .swgrrc file that is open during the installation session.