About the Symbian OS Installation System

The Symbian OS Installation System provides a simple and consistent user interface for installing applications, data, or configuration information to Symbian OS devices. End users install components packaged in Symbian OS Installation (.sis) files either from a PC using connectivity software, or from an Symbian OS phone using an on-board installation program.

Four tools are provided to enable developers to create installation files:

• CreateSIS, wrapper for MakeSIS, SignSIS and MakeKeys

• MakeSIS, the Installation File Generator, creates the installation files from a specification provided in a package file.

• MakeKeys, the Certificate Generator, creates private/public key pairs, which are used by SignSIS to digitally sign installation files.

• SignSIS, the Installation File Signer, digitally signs installation files with a specified key.

The Sisar GUI tool provides a simple way to create .sis files: for details see the Sisar Guide. It is possible though to write the required .pkg files by hand, and compile them using command-line tools, and this section contains the information to do so.

The following diagram shows how the PC based tools CreateSIS, MakeSIS, MakeKeys, and SignSIS are used to construct an installation package (SIS file) from component files, using instructions detailed in a PKG file, and sign it.