Pkgpostinst

Pkgpostinst is a post-installation script used in some software packaging systems. It is intended to be run after a package is installed or upgraded to finish configuration and initialization tasks that cannot be completed during the package build.

Typical responsibilities of a pkgpostinst script include creating or modifying configuration files, initializing databases or caches, creating necessary directories and setting permissions, enabling or starting services, and performing migrations or other one-time setup steps required for the package to function correctly.

Invocation and scope vary by packaging system. The script is usually packaged with the software and executed by the package manager as part of the package lifecycle. It generally runs with elevated privileges and should be designed to be idempotent and resilient to re-execution. The script may receive arguments indicating the action being performed (such as install or upgrade) or rely on environment information provided by the packaging framework.

Best practices for implementing a pkgpostinst script include keeping the script small and delegating complex tasks to dedicated tools, avoiding interactive prompts, logging output for troubleshooting, and returning a non-zero exit code on unrecoverable errors. It should gracefully handle partial failures and perform any necessary cleanup.

Relation to other concepts: pkgpostinst is analogous to postinst scripts in Debian-style packaging, and similar post-install scripts exist in other ecosystems (for example, RPM's scriptlets). Because naming and behavior vary across distributions, consult the specific packaging documentation for the exact conventions and lifecycle hooks used.