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Firstly, uncompress the distribution using:

 gunzip <binary-distribution>
for binary distributions compressed with GNU gzip (ending in .gz) or:
 uncompress <binary-distribution>
for binary distributions compressed with UNIX compress (ending in .Z).

WARNING: swinstall cannot handle compressed or gzipped depot files. You must uncompress or gunzip them first.

You now have the choice of the fast non-interactive method or the slower interactive one when installing the package. Both require you to run swinstall as root and the packages typically install into an /usr/local tree. If you wish to install as a non-root user (or install somewhere completely different), then you will have to take the source code and build/install from that instead.

Fast non-interactive method of installation

Assuming, say, you'd uncompressed the gzip PA-RISC binary package into /tmp as /tmp/gzip-1.2.4a-hppa-11.11.depot, then it's a one-liner command run as root:

swinstall -s /tmp/gzip-1.2.4a-hppa-11.11.depot gzip
Note that you must give the full path name as the parameter to the -s option and HP-UX 11.X packages have <package> as their fileset name.

Slow interactive method of installation

Run swinstall as root. Note that the description below assumes that you don't have your DISPLAY variable set and are using the text interface of swinstall. It's a lot easier with the DISPLAY variable set (just follow the instructions below, but use the mouse instead !).

When you enter swinstall you will be prompted for the Source Depot Path (don't change the other fields) - tab to this input field.

You should then supply the full path name to the uncompressed depot package (e.g. /tmp/gzip-1.2.4a-hppa-11.11.depot for gzip) in that field. Select OK (tab to it and press RETURN) to confirm this.

You now need to highlight the gzip entry (press RETURN twice) and then mark it "Yes" (typically the letter "m" on the keyboard does this for you or Alt-A-M in the graphical interface).

Now press the Tab key to activate the menu bar and choose the Actions menu using the arrow keys and RETURN.

Select the Install (analysis) menu option on the Actions menu with the arrow keys and RETURN.

The OK button should light up when the analysis is complete, so tab to that button and select it with RETURN.

Confirm that you want to proceed (RETURN on the OK button) and the installation should now taken place.

Tab to the Done button and press RETURN, then finally tab to the Menu bar, select the File menu and press "e" to Exit.

Deleting a package

Run this command (using gzip as an example again):

swremove gzip
At least that was easy ! You can be a sucker for punishment and run swremove with no parameters and go into an interactive session, but I really would advise against it...