This section is dedicated to system administration of Solaris/OpenSolaris. By default, tips concern both OS. If not a special colored-box is used:

Concerns specifically Solaris 10

Concerns specifically OpenSolaris

Solaris Release

Get the release of your OS by cat /etc/release:

OpenSolaris 2009.06

Example:

OpenSolaris 2009.06 snv_111b X86
Copyright 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
Use is subject to license terms.
Assembled 07 May 2009

Solaris 10

         Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 s10s_u9wos_14a SPARC
     Copyright (c) 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
                            Assembled 11 August 2010

System administration

SMF

Enable/disable services

Since Solaris 10, the old (but nice ?) start/stop script in rc?.d have been replaced by SMF, the Service Management Facility.

svcs
svcs -x	lists services encountering problems
svcs -a	lists all services including disabled ones
svcs -l <service>	provides information concerning a specific service Example: svcs -l svc:/network/routing/ndp:default fmri svc:/network/routing/ndp:default name in.ndpd IPv6 neighbour discovery daemon enabled true (temporary) state online next_state none state_time July 20, 2013 07:52:23 PM CEST logfile /var/svc/log/network-routing-ndp:default.log restarter svc:/system/svc/restarter:default contract_id 63 dependency require_all/refresh svc:/network/routing-setup (online)
svcadm
svcadm enable <service>	to enable a service. e.g svcadm enable svc:/network/samba:default
svcadm disable <service>	to disable a service.
svcadm enable -t <service>	temporary enabling/disabling a service (won't persist over reboot)
svcadm refresh <service>	restart the service
svccfg
svccfg -s <service> setprop <options>	set properties. Eg. svccfg -s svc:/application/x11/x11-server setprop options/tcp_listen = true Or, for example, get the current keymap layout: svc:/system/keymap:default> listprop keymap/layout keymap/layout astring French svc:/system/keymap:default> exit
svcprop
svcprop <service>	list properties for a given service. eg. $ svcprop svc:/application/x11/x11-server options/default_depth integer 24 options/server astring /usr/openwin/bin/Xsun options/server_args astring "" options/stability astring Evolving options/value_authorization astring solaris.smf.manage.x11 options/tcp_listen boolean true

OpenSolaris uses the SMF too. It (unfortunately ?) ships with many services and will probably need some tuning if your host is a bit slow. A nice reading on that behalf: Solaris 10 Benchmark v4.0.

Creating a manifest for a new service

See for example the SVN manifest I use.

Useful services

Name	Service Name	Comments
Apache	Solaris: svc:/network/http:apache2, OpenSolaris: svc:/network/http:apache22	Enable to set up your own web server
Avahi Daemon Bridge to Bonjour	svc:/system/avahi-bridge-dsd:default	Disabled. Used by DNS Multicast
CDE	svc:/application/graphical-login/cde-login:default	Disabled on Solaris: I use gdm. Does not exist on OpenSolaris
DHCP	dhcpagent	disabled: I use static address
Fiber Channel	svc:/system/device/fc-fabric:default	Keep enabled or the system won't reboot
GDM	Solaris: svc:/application/gdm2-login:default, OpenSolaris: svc:/application/graphical-login/gdm:default	enabled
GSS >API	gss:default	Disable. The GSS API is a security abstraction layer that is designed to make it easier for developers to integrate with different authentication schemes. It is most commonly used in applications for sites that use Kerberos for network authentication, though it can also allow applications to interoperate with other authentication schemes (quoted from Solaris 10 Benchmark v4.0).
IPFilter's service	ipmon	Enabled. used for zones
IPv6 neighbour discovery daemon	svc:/network/routing/ndp:default	Disabled. I don't use IPv6 at home !
Keyboard defaults	svc:/system/keymap:default	Enabled. If needed, set keyboard layout explicitly to fr. svc:/system/keymap:default> listprop keymap/layout keymap/layout astring French svc:/system/keymap:default> exit
Kerberos	svc:/network/security/ktkt_warn:default	"While Kerberos can be a security enhancement, if the local site is not currently using Kerberos then there is no need to enable this service" (according to here)
metainit	svc:/system/metainit:default	disable. SVM initialization
metasync	svc:/system/metasync:default	disable. SVM initialization
MySQL	svc:/application/database/mysql:version_51	if you don't need MySQL you can safely disable
Multicast DNS and DNS Service Discovery	multicast:default	disable
N Port ID Virtualization	svc:/network/npiv_config:default	Do not disable or the syste, won't reboot. N_Port_ID Virtualization (NPIV) is a method for virtualizing a FibreChannel Port. With NPIV, one physical FibreChannel port can obtain many N_Port_IDs.
PPD Cache Update	svc:/application/print/ppd-cache-update:default	disable
Rlogin	network/login:rlogin	enable this for rlogin
Samba	Solaris: svc:/network/samba:default, OpenSolaris: svc:/network/smb/client:default	enabled. On OpenSolaris, the Samba client is necessary for smbfs.
Sendmail	svc:/network/smtp:sendmail	I don't need it. To remove sendmail packages, pkgrm SUNWsndmu and SUNWsndmr. Beware sendmail is required by fetchmail
Time Slider	svc:/application/time-slider:default	For ZFS Snapshots
VNC Configuration	svc:/system/xvm/vnc-config:default	disable

List of online services

Currently, the list of online services on my OpenSolaris host are:

STATE          STIME    FMRI
legacy_run     20:36:20 lrc:/etc/rcS_d/S50yukonx
legacy_run     20:36:59 lrc:/etc/rc2_d/S20sysetup
legacy_run     20:36:59 lrc:/etc/rc2_d/S47pppd
legacy_run     20:36:59 lrc:/etc/rc2_d/S72autoinstall
legacy_run     20:36:59 lrc:/etc/rc2_d/S73cachefs_daemon
legacy_run     20:37:00 lrc:/etc/rc2_d/S81dodatadm_udaplt
legacy_run     20:37:00 lrc:/etc/rc2_d/S89PRESERVE
legacy_run     20:37:00 lrc:/etc/rc2_d/S98deallocate
disabled       20:36:57 svc:/system/xvm/ipagent:default
online         20:36:04 svc:/system/svc/restarter:default
online         20:36:05 svc:/network/loopback:default
online         20:36:05 svc:/network/datalink-management:default
online         20:36:06 svc:/system/filesystem/root:default
online         20:36:06 svc:/network/physical:nwam
online         20:36:07 svc:/system/scheduler:default
online         20:36:07 svc:/system/boot-archive:default
online         20:36:07 svc:/system/identity:node
online         20:36:14 svc:/system/filesystem/usr:default
online         20:36:14 svc:/system/device/local:default
online         20:36:14 svc:/system/filesystem/minimal:default
online         20:36:15 svc:/system/identity:domain
online         20:36:15 svc:/system/hostid:default
online         20:36:15 svc:/system/name-service-cache:default
online         20:36:15 svc:/system/rmtmpfiles:default
online         20:36:15 svc:/system/resource-mgmt:default
online         20:36:15 svc:/system/cryptosvc:default
online         20:36:15 svc:/network/ipfilter:default
online         20:36:15 svc:/milestone/network:default
online         20:36:15 svc:/system/sysevent:default
online         20:36:16 svc:/system/power:default
online         20:36:16 svc:/system/picl:default
online         20:36:16 svc:/network/npiv_config:default
online         20:36:16 svc:/system/device/fc-fabric:default
online         20:36:16 svc:/milestone/devices:default
online         20:36:17 svc:/system/manifest-import:default
online         20:36:17 svc:/system/coreadm:default
online         20:36:17 svc:/network/initial:default
online         20:36:18 svc:/network/service:default
online         20:36:18 svc:/network/dns/client:default
online         20:36:18 svc:/milestone/name-services:default
online         20:36:19 svc:/network/smb/client:default
online         20:36:20 svc:/system/keymap:default
online         20:36:20 svc:/milestone/single-user:default
online         20:36:24 svc:/network/routing-setup:default
online         20:36:24 svc:/network/routing/ndp:default
online         20:36:55 svc:/system/filesystem/local:default
online         20:36:56 svc:/system/sysidtool:net
online         20:36:56 svc:/network/shares/group:default
online         20:36:56 svc:/system/boot-archive-update:default
online         20:36:56 svc:/system/cron:default
online         20:36:56 svc:/network/shares/group:zfs
online         20:36:56 svc:/network/rpc/bind:default
online         20:36:56 svc:/application/stosreg:default
online         20:36:56 svc:/system/sysidtool:system
online         20:36:56 svc:/milestone/sysconfig:default
online         20:36:56 svc:/system/sac:default
online         20:36:57 svc:/system/dbus:default
online         20:36:57 svc:/system/utmp:default
online         20:36:57 svc:/system/filesystem/autofs:default
online         20:36:57 svc:/network/inetd:default
online         20:36:57 svc:/system/console-login:default
online         20:36:57 svc:/system/filesystem/zfssnap-roleadd:default
online         20:36:57 svc:/system/dumpadm:default
online         20:36:57 svc:/application/desktop-cache/mime-types-cache:default
online         20:36:58 svc:/application/desktop-cache/gconf-cache:default
online         20:36:58 svc:/system/postrun:default
online         20:36:58 svc:/application/desktop-cache/input-method-cache:default
online         20:36:58 svc:/application/desktop-cache/pixbuf-loaders-installer:default
online         20:36:58 svc:/application/opengl/ogl-select:default
online         20:36:58 svc:/network/rpc/smserver:default
online         20:36:58 svc:/network/login:rlogin
online         20:36:58 svc:/application/pkg/update:default
online         20:36:59 svc:/system/system-log:default
online         20:36:59 svc:/network/ssh:default
online         20:37:00 svc:/application/desktop-cache/desktop-mime-cache:default
online         20:37:00 svc:/milestone/multi-user:default
online         20:37:01 svc:/system/intrd:default
online         20:37:01 svc:/system/fmd:default
online         20:37:01 svc:/milestone/multi-user-server:default
online         20:37:03 svc:/system/zones:default
online         20:37:03 svc:/application/font/fc-cache:default
online         20:37:10 svc:/application/desktop-cache/icon-cache:default
online         20:37:12 svc:/system/filesystem/zfs/auto-snapshot:daily
online         20:37:13 svc:/system/filesystem/zfs/auto-snapshot:monthly
online         20:37:13 svc:/application/graphical-login/gdm:default
online         20:37:13 svc:/network/http:apache22
online         20:37:13 svc:/system/filesystem/zfs/auto-snapshot:weekly
online         20:37:19 svc:/system/hal:default
online         20:37:19 svc:/system/filesystem/rmvolmgr:default
online         20:37:28 svc:/system/filesystem/zfs/auto-snapshot:frequent
online         20:37:28 svc:/system/filesystem/zfs/auto-snapshot:hourly
online         20:37:28 svc:/application/time-slider:default

Inetadm

Get status of an inet service:

inetadm | grep ftp
disabled  disabled       svc:/network/ftp:default

Enable an inet service:

pfexec inetadm -e ftp
$ inetadm | grep ftp
enabled   online         svc:/network/ftp:default

System Admin GUIs

The host can be graphically administered using:

SMC (Solaris Management Console): user management, hosts editing, cron batches, SMF. Launch /usr/sadm/bin/smc. On Solaris only (not OpenSolaris).
Webmin: web-based administration. Pretty good.
Visual Panels: this is an additional piece of software. I'm not a fan, but it's there if you want it.

User management

How to add a new user

To add a new user,

use the graphical Solaris Management Console (smc&)
or manually:
- make sure the home dir exists and is readable by the group,
- then type:

useradd -d <homedir> -g <group> -s /usr/bin/bash <username>

Allow a user for pfexec

# cat /etc/security/exec_attr | grep "Primary"

Primary Administrator:suser:cmd:::*:uid=0;gid=0

# usermod -P'Primary Administrator' testuser

Logs

/var/adm/messages
/var/cron/log	Cron's log. Will also log auto snapshot actions.
/var/adm/sulog	Successful or failed su logins
/var/log/syslog

Authentication

Log failed logins

Set SYSLOG_FAILED_LOGINS in /etc/default/login

Password policy

The password policy is configured in /etc/default/passwd. The default settings are reasonable. Several parameters are commented out, but they have a default value. On the contrary, an unsecure setting could be as follows:

MAXWEEKS=
MINWEEKS=
PASSLENGTH=4
HISTORY=0
MINDIFF=0
MINDIGIT=0

See more information here.

Automatic login

On Solaris 10, to have the host automatically log in as a given user:

# gdmsetup & --> set up for user you wish to log in
# vi /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf
...
SystemMenu=true
# /etc/init.d/dtlogin stop
# /usr/dt/bin/dtconfig -d
# svcadm enable gdm2-login

Now, automatic login is a bit disappointing, because you still have to provide user's password...

On OpenSolaris 2008.11, no such issue ! Use gdmsetup and it works.

Whoami

An alternative to whoami is

/usr/xpg4/bin/id -un

System Path

The default path for Solaris 10 should be set in /etc/default/login:

PATH=/usr/sfw/bin:/opt/csw/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/openwin/bin
SUPATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/bin

PATH is the default path for users.

SUPATH is the default path for root when running su.

Both paths are overriden by user's .profile, .login, .cshrc or .bashrc. So, check those files out too.

System Locale

Locales are a complicated matter I haven't completely grasped yet ;) I would recommend using UTF-8 as much as possible as it supports English and French characters, but UTF-8 will only work if the application supports it. For example, xterm do not support UTF-8 (I read there is a workaround using efonts but I haven't tested). Urxvt does.
If setting locale to UTF-8 fails, ISO Latin 15 (ISO-8859-15) is a good alternative to display French accents and euro symbol.
The main locale environment variables are:

LANG: general language specification
LC_ALL: language setting. If not empty, overrides LANG and other LC_ variables
LC_MESSAGES: compilation warnings, errors in the specified language

Those variables are described in man 5 environ. To check your current locale:

$ locale
LANG=C
LC_CTYPE="C"
LC_NUMERIC="C"
LC_TIME="C"
LC_COLLATE="C"
LC_MONETARY="C"
LC_MESSAGES="C"
LC_ALL=

If a user wishes to customize its locale, he/she should usually set LANG (or individually, each LC_ variable). However, this setting is not persistent: it must be added to user's .bashrc.
Those settings may affect locale-dependant applications. For instance, to launch Thunderbird with English menus but French accents supports, set LANG to en_US.UTF-8. To use Thunderbird with French menus: fr_FR.UTF-8.
To set the system's locale, modify the settings in /etc/default/init and reboot:

LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_CTYPE="C"
LC_NUMERIC="C"
LC_TIME="C"
LC_COLLATE="C"
LC_MONETARY="C"
LC_MESSAGES="C"

To add a new locale, use localeadm

I encountered strange lags with OpenSolaris, when launching simple applications such as xclock, xeyes etc: the computer would freeze for a few seconds, and finally the application appears.
This does not occur any longer once I set all LC_ variables to C except LANG to en_US.UTF-8 in /etc/default/init.

LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_CTYPE="C"
LC_NUMERIC="C"
LC_TIME="C"
LC_COLLATE="C"
LC_MONETARY="C"
LC_MESSAGES="C"

Setting the System Date

To set/correct time, do:

date -s 1334

to set clock to 13:34.

To set the timezone, use the tzselect utility. Alternatively, it is possible to do:

pfexec /usr/sbin/rtc -z Europe/Paris

Networking

To restart the network:

svcadm restart svc:/network/physical:nwam

To add a new computer, use the Solaris Management Console, Computers & Network, Computers, then selection Action / Add Computer. This basically adds an entry to /etc/hosts.
Check out files /etc/hostname, /etc/hostname.<SOMETHING> (hme0, yukonx...), /etc/nodename, /etc/inet/hosts, /etc/inet/ipnodes.
List possible interfaces: ifconfig -a plumb, then ifconfig
List routes: routeadm
GUI: network-admin

Set a static IP address

Specifying a static IP address consists in:

ethernet interface: an ether interface must exist and be named. I use the default name for mine: yukonx0
make sure the networking service is enabled: either physical:default or physical:nwam. The former is the most 'basic' networking service. The latter is a networking daemon that automatically configures your host. It's worth a try: on my OpenSolaris host, it worked straight out of the box and I consequently did not have to configure networking manually. On Solaris u5, however, I had to do it manually.
configure a few files (with nwam, most of these steps should be automatically done):
- /etc/hostname.<INTERFACE NAME>: specify your host's name:cify your host's name:

$ more /etc/hostname.yukonx0
boureautic

/etc/hosts: set the loopback address and your static IP address:

$ cat /etc/hosts
#
# Internet host table
#
#::1    localhost       loghost boureautic
127.0.0.1       localhost       loghost
192.168.0.2     boureautic

/etc/resolv.conf: set the appropriate DNS servers (those are the ones used by Free):

nameserver 212.27.40.240
nameserver 212.27.40.241

/etc/nsswitch.conf: make sure the line hosts sets "files" before "dns".

hosts:      files dns

for physical:default, set the default gateway: route add default 192.168.0.254. And then, automatically add the route at each reboot writing a script /etc/rc2.d/S99route

For a manual try, add the network interface with ifconfig:

ifconfig yukonx0 192.168.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

Eavesdropping network packets

No need to install Ethereal: on Solaris, there's snoop. Example 1:

pfexec snoop 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.3 and tcp > trace.txt

This will record all TCP packets which mention 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.3. Example 2:

pfexec snoop -d yukonx0 -o smbfs.snoop 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.3 and tcp

The output is written to smbfs.snoop, and we listen only on network card yukonx0.

Enable Rlogin

To add the rlogin network service:

svcs -l rlogin
svcadm enable network/login:rlogin

Note that svcadm enable -t network/login:rlogin only performs a temporary enable of rlogin (won't persist over reboot).

X

Display windows remotely

This is basic on X Window, but from time to time I however encounter problems to do it.

For remote display:

export DISPLAY=:0.0

Also use /usr/openwin/bin/xauth list to list which entities are authorized.

XScreensaver

There's a known bug on Solaris 10 u5: when you log on, a message is displayed: “failed to execute child process “xscreensaver” (no such file or directory) screesaver functionality will not work in this session”.

To get rid of this message, do

ln -s /usr/openwin/bin/xscreensaver /usr/bin/xscreensaver

GDM

To add FVWM to possible sessions, modify /usr/share/xsessions/fvwm.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=FVWM
Name[fr]=FVWM 2.5.26
Comment=This session logs you into FVWM 2.5.26
Exec=/usr/local/bin/fvwm
Icon=
Type=Application

On Solaris 10, stop dtlogin to use gdm:

# /etc/init.d/dtlogin stop
# /usr/dt/bin/dtconfig -d
# svcadm disable cde-login
# svcadm enable gdm2-login

On OpenSolaris 2008.11, gdm refers to the service svc:/application/graphical-login/gdm:default. There is no CDE login.

On OpenIndiana, to add FVWM as a possible session, edit .dmrc:

[Desktop]
Session=fvwm
Language=C
Layout=

XDMCP

To configure XDMCP, launch gdmsetup then click on the remote tabs and activate 'same as local'.

The logs of XDMCP are sent to the console. Make sure that only GDM is launched not also CDE (disable service cde-login for gdm2-login).

On OpenIndiana, activate XDCMP in /etc/gdm/custom.conf

[xdmcp]
Enable=true
DisplaysPerHost=2

Fonts

To display usable fonts, use xfontsel
To use a given font in a xterm, use -fn:

xterm -fn -*-fixed-medium-*-*-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-* &

or create an ~/XTerm file (or in ~/.Xdefaults) and specify the fonts, size (etc) you wish to use:

XTerm*font: 9x15

corresponds to:

xterm -font 9x15 &

Fonts are typically located in /usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/misc/

Software Management

Package management	Typical install directories	Local package database	Comments
pkgadd etc	/usr, /usr/sfw, /opt/sfw	/var/sadm/pkg	Default package management utility on Solaris. Does not handle dependencies. SUN's packages are prefixed by SUNW (eg SUNWvbox).
pkg-get	/opt/csw		"Old" Blastwave package management. Close to apt-get. Handles dependencies. Blastwave's package are prefixed by CSW (eg CSWperl).
pkgutil	/opt/csw		New Blastwave package management. Close to apt-get. Handles dependencies. Install using pkgadd -d http://get.opencsw.org/now, which fetches CSWpkgutil. To install the new PKI: /opt/csw/bin/cswpki --import --force
pkg			New package management of OpenSolaris. I don't like it very much, it takes ages to run. Packages are prefixed with IPS (eg IPSgnutls)

Commands	Solaris	pkg-get	pkgutil	IPS (OpenSolaris)
Add / Install	pkgadd -d <unzipped-package> 1/ unzip the package (gunzip, bunzip2, unzip...) and 2/ pkgadd.	pkg-get install <blastwave-package> (automatically downloads and installs dependencies)		pkg install <IPS package>
Remove	pkgrm packagename	pkg-get remove packagename
Upgrade		pkg-get upgrade packagename This will upgrade all packages for which a new version exists. It consists in uninstalling the old version (remove) and then installing the new version (install). At first, seeing a remove operation may be surprising, but in the end, it works.
Get package details	pkginfo -l packagename $ pkginfo -l SUNWopenssl-commands PKGINST: SUNWopenssl-commands NAME: OpenSSL Commands (Usr) CATEGORY: system ARCH: i386 VERSION: 11.11,REV=2008.10.30.20.37 VENDOR: Sun Microsystems, Inc. DESC: OpenSSL Commands (Use) HOTLINE: Please contact your local service provider STATUS: completely installed			pkg info package $ pkg info -l SUNWxwplt Name: SUNWxwplt Summary: X Window System platform software Category: System/X11 State: Installed Publisher: opensolaris.org Version: 0.5.11 Build Release: 5.11 Branch: 0.111 Packaging Date: Fri May 8 16:45:51 2009 Size: 14.34 MB FMRI: pkg:/SUNWxwplt@0.5.11,5.11-0.111:20090508T164551Z
List contents of a package	pkgchk -l <package> (also lists details)			pkg contents <IPS package> Example: pkg contents xsane/sane-backends usr/lib/sane/libsane-pixma.so.1 usr/lib/sane/libsane-pixma.so.1.0.19 usr/share/man/man5/sane-pixma.5
Search in which package a command belongs to	grep xxx /var/sadm/install/contents or /usr/sbin/pkgchk -l -p thecommand			pkg search -r <command>
Search for packages starting with a given name			pkgutil -a blah
List all available packages on the server			pkgutil -l
Locate software repositories				pkg publisher
Verify an installation				pkg verify package This will tell you for instance if a link is broken: pkg verify web/browser/firefox PACKAGE STATUS pkg://openindiana.org/web/browser/firefox ERROR link: usr/bin/firefox Target: '/opt/sfw/lib/firefox/firefox' should be '../lib/firefox/firefox'

There's a nice comparison between Debian's apt-get and IPS or pkgadd / IPS: here.

Patches

On Solaris: use the Sun Connection Update Manager (last version is currently 1.0.4). To do so, it is mandatory to register Solaris. The command line tool is /usr/sbin/updatemanager (run as root). This will ask for registration if you haven't done so yet). This is a graphical interface.

I encountered a serious problem with patches: I patched the system with security or recommended patches, some of those patches failed, and then at the next reboot: kernel crash (impossible to boot, except in single user mode). So beware... See Sun's Forums and Google Groups: looks like others encountered the same problem…

On OpenSolaris: launch /usr/sbin/updatemanager

pkg-get

To install pkg-get,

Get pkg-get from Blastwave.
Install it: pkgadd -d pkg_get-3.8.4-SunOS5.8-all-CSW.pkg. The procedure is perfectly described on Blastwave's site. Check its digest with:

digest -v -a md5 pkg_get.pkg

Then configure it in /opt/csw/etc/pkg-get.conf. Set up the mirror to use, the tree version (stable, unstable, testing), and the download directory (by default: /var/pkg-get/donwloads).

url=http://ibiblio.org/pub/packages/solaris/csw/unstable
PKGGET_DOWNLOAD_DIR=/tmp

Then use pkg-get to install Blastwave packages.

pkgutil

Blastwave has recently replaced pkg-get by pkgutil. To install pkgutil,

get the package
do: pkgadd -d <pkgutil-pkg>
then use pkgutil to handle other packages.

Using other packages

Unpack a debian package:

/usr/xpg4/bin/ar x package.deb
gunzip data.tar.gz
tar -xvf data.tar

Kernel module

List which kernel module is installed: modinfo
Load a kernel module: modload

Developer's corner

Bash

A very simple .bashrc on Solaris:

export PATH=/usr/bin/amd64:$PATH:/opt/csw/bin:.
export PS1="[\u@\w] "

On OpenSolaris:

PS1='${LOGNAME}@$(/usr/bin/hostname):$(
    [[ "${LOGNAME}" == "root" ]] && printf "%s" "${PWD/${HOME}/~}# " ||
    printf "%s" "${PWD/${HOME}/~}\$ ")'

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin:/usr/share/bin

32-bit vs 64-bit

To know whether your architecture is 32 or 64 bit: isainfo -b

There's a very interesting article on Blog'o thnet.

To summarize, on 64-bit processors, the kernel, device drivers and some key applications (or those with a high performance issue) are 64-bit, but all other applications are usually 32-bit. There are no emulation libraries on Solaris 64 to run 32-bit libraries: there are two different system calls.

To check whether a given application is 32 or 64 bit, run file:

$ file /usr/bin/amd64/ls
/usr/bin/amd64/ls:      ELF 64-bit LSB executable AMD64 Version 1, dynamically linked, stripped

This also means that on 64-bit hosts, you should set your PATH to locate 64-bit applications before 32-bit ones. For example /usr/bin/amd64 should be set before /usr/bin.

Compilers etc

For Solaris, there's a very interesting article on the subject here. Mainly, what I get of out it is:

no need to install a gcc package (such as CSWgcc) because gcc is usually installed by default in /usr/sfw (mine is version 3.4.3).
no need to install gmake (3.80) either: it's already installed in /usr/sfw.
put /usr/sfw/bin at the top of your path, and remove /usr/ucb (or leave it at the end of your path - because it points to an 'old' cc).
install Sun Studio to get cc (among other things). Actually, cc is said to be better than gcc (faster code), but gcc is perhaps better known by GNU/Free addicts. Anyway, if cc is installed, add /opt/SUNWspro/bin to your path.

For example,

export PATH=/usr/bin/amd64:/usr/sfw/bin:/opt/csw/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:/usr/openwin/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:.
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/sfw/lib/amd64:/lib/amd64:/usr/lib/amd64:/usr/sfw/lib:/lib:/usr/lib:/opt/csw/lib:.
export MAKE=gmake

For OpenSolaris, install SUNWgcc and SUNWgmake.

Library path

According to Rich Teer's article, programs should actually be linked with the -R option. This strategy reduces the need for a LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

However, in situations where the program hasn't been linked that way, there are 2 different ways to configure your library path on Solaris:

set the common LD_LIBRARY_PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH_64 environment variables
or use the crle (Configuration Runtime Linker Environment) command.

To list your current paths: crle or crle -64 To set new paths: crle -l <a path> -l <another path> …

Typical required paths are: /lib, /usr/lib, /opt/csw/lib, /opt/SUNWspro/lib.