# Preface

This book provides a tutorial and reference for the ESP Package Manager ("EPM") software, version 5.0, and is organized into the following chapters and appendices:

- 1 - Introduction to EPM
- 2 - Building EPM
- 3 - Packaging Your Software with EPM
- 4 - Advanced Packaging with EPM
- 5 - EPM Packaging Examples
- A - Software License Agreement
- B - Command Reference
- C - List File Reference

## Notation Conventions

The names of commands; the first mention of a command or function in a chapter is followed by a manual page section number:
  `epm`
  `epm(1)`
File and directory names:
  /var
  /usr/bin/epm
Screen output:
  `Request ID is Printer-123`
Literal user input; special keys like `ENTER` are in ALL CAPS:
  `lp -d printer filename ENTER`
Long commands are broken up on multiple lines using the backslash (\) character; enter the commands without the backslash:
  `foo start of long command \
  end of long command ENTER`
Numbers in the text are written using the period (.) to indicate the decimal point:
  12.3

## Abbreviations

The following abbreviations are used throughout this book:

kb
  Kilobytes, or 1024 bytes
Mb
  Megabytes, or 1048576 bytes
Gb
  Gigabytes, or 1073741824 bytes

## Other References

https://jimjag.github.io/epm/
  The official home page of the ESP Package Manager software.
http://www.debian.org/devel/
  Debian Developers' Corner
http://techpubs.sgi.com/
  IRIX Documentation On-Line
http://www.rpm.org/
  The Red Hat Package Manager home page.
http://docs.sun.com/
  Solaris Documentation On-Line

## Help Me Improve This Book!

We've done my best to ensure that this book is both accurate and clear. If you find errors or have a suggestion for improving the book, please file a bug at:

    https://github.com/jimjag/epm/issues

## Acknowledgments

We'd like to thank the following people for their contributions to EPM:

- Gareth Armstrong: HP-UX and %release enhancements
- Nicolas Bazin: Openserver and Unixware support
- Richard Begg: HP-UX fixes
- Dirk Datzert: Bug fixes
- Alan Eldridge: Makefile and RPM fixes
- Vicentini Emanuele: IRIX enhancements
- Jeff Harrell: IRIX enhancements
- Lars Kellogg-Stedman: Debian fixes
- Jochen Kmietsch: mkepmlist fixes
- Aneesh Kumar K.V.: Tru64 setld package support
- David Lee: Build system improvements
- Scott Leerssen: mkepmlist fixes, BSD package support
- Jeff Licquia: Debian support/enhancements
- David Maltz: AIX fixes
- Joel Nordell: SCO fixes
- Rok Papez: Bug fixes and absolute output directory support
- Holger Paschke: Documentation fixes
- Phil Reynolds: OpenBSD fixes
- Ganesan Rajagopal: Solaris fixes
- Uwe Räsche: AIX support
- Ralf Rohm: Solaris fixes
- Jochen Schaeuble: epminstall fixes
- Jason Shiffer: HP-UX fixes
- Andrea Suatoni: IRIX fixes
- Andy Walter: QNX support
- Geoffrey Wossum: --output-directory option
- Jean Yves: BSD package and mkepmlist fixes