Build Blends - What They Change and Which One You Are Running

What Are Build Blends

A blend is a named variant of a release. Every blend of a release is built from the same source at the same release version and the same format version, so the programs are the same programs and the job, queue, printer and licence file formats are the same formats. What a blend changes is where the files are installed on your system.

The blend is one of the fields in every distribution file name. It is also recorded against your account, and against each system you register, in the Xi Software portal. Every account has the standard blend; any other blend is one Xi Software has arranged for that account.

Standard Blend

The "standard" blend is the general-purpose build, and it is what almost every installation runs. It appears in file names, and in the directory a tarball extracts to, as:

xibatch-standard-1.9.0
xitext-standard-1.25.2

Standard builds are produced for every supported platform.

The Blends That Exist

Blends are named for the configuration rather than for a customer, and there are few of them.

The vmware option, on the releases shipping today. The vmware and cronus+vmware blends are built with an option intended to stop a licence being tied to the identity of a file on disk, which a virtual machine can change across a reboot. In the Xi-Batch and Xi-Text releases shipping today there is no such check for that option to switch off: the licence record the products validate holds the serial number, the start and end dates, the entitlement flags and the site name, and nothing about a file. A vmware blend on its own therefore leaves licence validation exactly as it is, and a cronus+vmware installation behaves as a cronus one. Where a licence on a virtual machine keeps failing, describe what you observe to Xi Software support rather than requesting this blend as the remedy.

What a Blend Changes

A blend moves directories. These are the locations for the two families in use:

Two locations are the same on every blend: the configuration directory /etc/xi, and the user commands in /usr/local/bin. Everything installed beside the internal programs moves with them, including the licence file, so on a cronus installation the licence sits in /spool/progs rather than /usr/libexec/xi.

Note the shape of the change as well as the names. Under the standard blend the spool data, sockets and printer directories are subdirectories of a single spool root; under a cronus blend they are siblings directly under /spool. That is the difference to expect when a procedure elsewhere in this knowledgebase names a directory your system does not have.

Requesting a Blend

Blends are arranged by Xi Software. Contact Xi Software support with the requirement and the platforms it applies to.

Once your account is entitled to a blend, it appears in the portal in two places: you can select it when you register a system, and builds of that blend are listed for download alongside the standard builds.

Which Blend to Run

Run the standard blend unless Xi Software has arranged a different one for your site. A blend changes where files are installed; the features, the commands and the file formats are the same in every blend, so adopting one gains you nothing on its own.

The cases where a blend is in use are an established installation or a distributor whose directory layout predates the standard one, and a diagnostic build issued by support while a problem is being investigated.

Blend Maintenance

Version numbers

A blend carries the same release version as the standard build of the same software. Where a blend is produced after that version has been released, it ships as a further revision of it, so the version matches and the build reference differs.

Updating within a blend

An update to the blend you already run is an ordinary update, and follows the procedure for your distribution format.

Changing blend is a different operation

Blends are separate packages. On an RPM installation the installed package name carries the blend, so two blends are two distinct packages. On a Debian installation the package name is the product alone and the blend is part of the version, where it sorts alphabetically rather than by date - so a build of one blend never presents itself as newer than a build of another, and a package manager will not move a system between blends on its own. The directories move as well. Ask Xi Software support before changing the blend of a running system.

Testing

Packaged blend builds are verified against the blend's own installed paths, rather than the standard ones, before release.

Identifying Installed Blend

No Xi-Batch or Xi-Text command prints the blend, and the version string compiled into the programs does not carry it. There are four places to look.

On an RPM installation, the installed package name carries the blend after an underscore:

rpm -qa | grep -i xitext

This gives a name such as xitext_standard-1.25.2-2.1782476379.el9.x86_64, or xitext_cronus-… on a cronus installation. Older installations carry a longer product spelling, for example xitext_legacy_cronus+vmware. In every case the blend is the part of the package name after the product.

On a Debian installation, the package name is the product alone and the blend is part of the version, following the plus sign:

dpkg -l | grep -i xitext
# ii  xitext  1.25.2-1+cronus.1782476379  amd64  Xi-Text Spooler

The installed directories answer the question without any package query. Internal programs in /usr/libexec/xi means a standard-path blend; internal programs in /spool/progs means a cronus-family blend.

The master configuration file under /etc/xi records the directories the build was made with, in its SPROGDIR, SPOOLDIR and related settings. A setting still at the value compiled into the build is written as a comment line; the value shown is the one in use.

Your registered systems in the Xi Software portal also record the blend each one runs.

Blend and Version Compatibility

Same version, different blend

The formats are identical, so saved jobs, queue files and user files written under one blend are read under another of the same version, and the two interoperate over the network.

Moving data between blends

The files are the same and the directories are not, so anything copied across has to be placed under the receiving system's directories rather than the ones it came from.

Different versions

What decides whether two installations can exchange files is the format version, which a blend leaves unchanged. See the article on product versioning.

Downloading Blend-Specific Distributions

Builds are obtained from the Xi Software customer portal at https://product-management.xisl.com/login:

1. Sign in to your account
2. Open the panel for the serial number concerned
3. Each active system lists the builds available for its platform, newest first
4. Choose the file whose blend field matches the installation

The list carries every blend the account is entitled to, and that always includes the standard blend. An account entitled to a further blend therefore sees both, and the blend field in the file name is what distinguishes them.

Licensing

A licence is issued against the machine, and the blend forms no part of it: the record the products validate holds the serial number, the start and end dates, the entitlement flags and the site name. The same codes are valid whichever blend of a product you run.

The licence file itself is installed beside the internal programs, so it moves with the blend - /usr/libexec/xi on a standard installation, /spool/progs on a cronus one.

Blends are built from the same released software and follow the same release cycle. Contact Xi Software sales to discuss a blend for your site.