USDA ARS

Customizing IPW's Configuration

Although efforts have been made to maximize the portability of IPW, there are a few situations where modifications to IPW's configuration are necessary in order for the software to be installed. For example, a particular host may not conform completely with the Single Unix Specification, or, a IPW is being ported to a new operating system.

The customizations to IPW's configuration are categorized as one of two types:

IPW provides different mechanisms for supporting both types of customizations to its configuration.

Site-specific Modifications

Site-specific modifications to IPW are placed in one of these two files:

Host-specific Modifications

Generally, most modifications to IPW at installations known to the authors are specific to the type of operating system (OS) of the host that IPW is installed on. These types of modifications are placed in C header files in the subdirectory "$IPW/conf/hosts".

Each OS type has its own C header file. The list of OS's and their associated header files is in the file "$IPW/conf/hosts/List". When IPW is configured on a host, if the host's OS is in this list, then the symbolic link "$IPW/conf/host.h" points to the OS's associated header file. If the host's OS is not in the list, then this link points to the default host header file "$IPW/conf/hosts/default".

When porting IPW to a new operating system, a programmer may need to create a host-specific header file if the default header file is not adequate. If so, the programmer should add the new operating system and its header file to the list file mentioned above,


IPW documentation / Last revised 20 May 2009 / IPW web site