Software Distributor

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Software Distributor (SD) is the Hewlett-Packard company's name for their HP-UX software package management system.

SD provides a set of tools for creating packages that will install software on a system running the HP-UX operating system. The packages can be grouped together into a software repository called a depot, and a server can be configured to host multiple depots for installation of software packages and even entire systems.

SD was first available with release 10.0 of HP-UX in 1995. Since then it has undergone several enhancements and bug fixes, and now provides a reliable software installation tool. It uses a client-server arrangement to distribute software using a background daemon called swagentd. A software distributor provides its customers with the ability to purchase software licenses from multiple sources. This agent is started at boot time, and communicates using either the TCP or UDP protocols through RPC. The SD packages are normally stored and transmitted in compressed form, using either the gzip or compress programs.