what does list_expander do?

[Gerry Gerofsky]

I am having a hard-time understanding list_expander does and what its output means.

When I run it on my system, I get:
bash-3.2# /opt/ignite/lbin/list_expander -s

929430
But the actual archive is:
bash-3.2# ls -l /var/tmp/r23h01.xyz.com.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root sys 1184422901 Apr 4 15:41 /var/tmp/r23h01.xyz.com.gz

The only info I found is in man make_sys_image:
−a archive_size The calculated size required for the archive may be passed to this command.
The archive size must be a decimal number. The archive size is usually created
by running the /opt/ignite/lbin/list_expander -s command.
This will save one call to list_expander during make_sys_image’s
execution.

What does it do, in plain English?

Thanks

[Bob Ingersoll]

What is the problem that you are trying to solve?

list_expander determines which files are to be included in the archive.

[Scot Bean]

Best info I have seen on it is in this section of the Ignite manual:
http://docs.hp.com/en/5991-6440/ch12s02.html

It can help you
- plan a recovery image
- examine recovery image contents