The Image Packaging System, pkg(5), is a framework that provides for software lifecycle management such as installation, upgrade, and removal of packages. IPS also provides users the ability to create their own software packages, create and manage packaging repositories, and mirror existing packaging repositories.The OpenSolaris 2009.06 release uses IPS as its packaging system.After an initial installation of the OpenSolaris 2009.06 operating system, you may find that many of the software applications that you use on a regular basis are not immediately available for use. You can install these software applications from a packaging repository through the Image Packaging System CLI and GUI (Package Manager) clients.After you have installed the packages on your system, the IPS clients can be used to search, upgrade, and manage them.The IPS clients can be also used to upgrade an entire system to a new release of OpenSolaris, create and manage repositories, and mirror an existing repository. For more information, see and .If the system on which IPS is installed can access the Internet, then the clients can access and install software from the OpenSolaris packaging repositories, and . For a list of repositories available for the OpenSolaris 2009.06 release, see . You can install the OpenSolaris 2009.06 release on your system from the OpenSolaris LiveCD. Alternatively, you can download a bootable image of the OpenSolaris operating system and mount it in a virtual machine on your system.See the Installation Roadmap in the Getting Started With OpenSolaris 2009.06 document to install and explore the OpenSolaris 2009.06 operating system.The OpenSolaris 2009.06 release supports both x86 and SPARC platforms. The OpenSolaris 2009.06 release offers complete support for developing and deploying applications for the web. The software needed for development of web applications are available as packages in the and repositories. See Setting up Your OpenSolaris Development Environment to learn how to download and install applications such as Sun Studio compilers and NetBeans software and to obtain the tools required to set up a Web Stack Development environment. The Package Manager application provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for IPS. It provides a subset of the functionality offered by the command-line (CLI) clients provided with IPS.The Package Manager enables you to do the following:Configure IPS Search and manage packages Create, rename, and remove boot environments Start the Package Manager application in one of the following ways:Desktop MenuClick System->Administration—>Package Manager. Command lineExecute the following command at the prompt:$ gksu packagemanager & The complete documentation for the Package Manager is available in the Help menu of the application.You can also view the screencast to learn about the Package Manager. The Update Manager is a desktop application that enables users to update all installed packages in an image. The Update Manager notifies the user when updates to the installed packages are available. The complete documentation for the Update Manager is available in the Help menu of the Package Manager application. The following table provides a list of commands to help you get started with installing and managing IPS packages from the command-line.For advanced IPS commands and tasks, see and .See Command Reference Table and the pkg(1) man pages for a complete list of pkg(1) commands.The default repository for an OpenSolaris system is http://pkg.opensolaris.org/release. Task and Description Instructions Add or update software (packages) to your system Perform a dry-run installation of packages to see the changes that will occur on the system when a package is installed, without actually installing the package Search for a package that is installed on your system or search in a remote repository Display and modify publisher and repository information Display package information such as package summary, publisher information, license, and copyright information Upgrade your system (updating all packages)A new boot environment is created. Remove a package View the list of available commands pkg help View operation history Remove operation history pfexec pkg purge-history Choose one of the following methods to upgrade all the packages on your system to the latest available version.Upgrading all packages on your system is equivalent to updating your system. A new boot environment with the latest packages and a clone of the current boot environment are created. For more information, see the section on Introduction to Boot Environments. Package Manager – Click the Update All icon in the Package Manager to update all packages on your system. This constitutes a system upgrade. See the Online Help in the Package Manager to learn more about the Update All process. Update Manager – The Update Manager is a desktop application that enables users to update all installed packages in an image. The Update Manager notifies the user when updates to the installed packages are available. Command Line – Use the following command to update all packages:$ pfexec pkg image-updateSee for additional information.