Transferring SRC Packages to Other Hosts
The SRC software is distributed as packages in the distribution in the file system format. If you want to transfer the packages to another host—for example, by using FTP—you must first convert the file system format to generate a single file that you can then transfer to the host.
You can use the pkgtrans tool to translate the file system format of the desired packages to a single file (datastream format). You can optionally compress the file with compression tools such as the UNIX compress or gzip utilities.
You can use the md5sum utility to verify the integrity of the file transfer. The utility computes and checks the MD5 message digest for a file. After packaging the file for transfer, run md5sum on the package file to compute an MD5 checksum for the file. Send both the checksum and the file to the destination host by using FTP. After the transfer, run md5sum on the destination host to compute a checksum for the transferred file and compare it with the original checksum. If the two checksums do not match, md5sum fails, and you know an error occurred in the transfer. You must repeat the transfer. If a transfer log exists, you can examine the log to determine why the transfer has failed before you attempt to retransmit the file. Only when the checksum passes, indicating a successful file transfer, can you use the file for installation.
If you compressed the file before transfer, you must uncompress the transferred file on the destination host. You can either translate the package from datastream format to file system format or use the datastream format directly.