One of the problems I find with iManager is that although you can list the currently installed versions of the various plug-ins (NPMs) from within iManager itself you can't easily find out when particular plug-ins were last updated. This is especially a problem if you're in the (bad!) habit of selecting all available plug-ins and then hitting Install!

Anyway I did a bit of poking about out the filesystem and found that plug-ins are installed to /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/packages/ (on NetWare it's SYS:\tomcat\5.0\webapps\nps\packages\). However listing that directory in date order doesn't reveal when plug-ins were installed/updated, simply which plug-in file is later than another.

Then I discovered that iManager records information that can be used to uninstall plug-ins in /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/UninstallerData (with NetWare it's SYS:\tomcat\5.0\webapps\nps\uninstallerdata\). Here the date of the directory is when the plug-in was installed or last updated (this is important to note - see later) so could be useful for a changelog.

So on an OES Linux server you can use

ls -lrt /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/UninstallerData

which will produce a directory listing sorted in reverse date (actually modification time) order that is then your changelog. All directory names start with Uninstall_ followed by the name of the plug-in.

oeslinux:~ # ls -lrt /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/UninstallerData
total 176
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_base
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_fw
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_afp
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_ark
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_eDirectoryBackupAndRestore
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_cifsmgmt
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_CaseSensitivePassword
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_dfsmgmt
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_eDirectoryMerge
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_eDirectoryRepairAndLogfile
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_EA
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_eDirectory88_Plugins
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_eDirExtended
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_ER
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_fileman
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_ICEWizardModule
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_ifolder3
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_IndexManagerPlugin
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_Kerberos
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_LDAPConfiguration
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_LinuxUserManagement
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_ncs
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_NMAS
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_NetStorage
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_nssmgmt
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_dhcp
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_CertServerPlugins
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_PS
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_novell_imanager_pwdmanagement_plugins
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_notfconfig
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_pwdpolicy
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_SharedContentV1
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_QFSearch
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_RWiz
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_samba
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_ServiceManager
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_SMS
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_SNMPConfiguration
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_storage
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_WanManConfiguration
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_iman_supportpack
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_iPrintX
drwxrwxr-x 2 wwwrun www 4096 Nov  2 20:02 Uninstall_dns

With most directory names it's kind of obvious which plug-in it relates to - for example Uninstall_dns is for the DNS plug-in. If you're not sure which plug-in a particular Uninstall_ directory relates to you can check iman_mod_desc.xml in /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/packages.

If you'd like a tidier output, perhaps just containing the date, time and directory name for each Uninstall_ directory then you can filter the output from the ls command through cut so the command becomes

ls -lrt /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/UninstallerData/ | cut -d " " -f 6-

which produces

oeslinux:~ # ls -lrt /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/UninstallerData/ | cut -d " " -f 6- 

Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_base
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_fw
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_afp
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_ark
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_eDirectoryBackupAndRestore
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_cifsmgmt
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_CaseSensitivePassword
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_dfsmgmt
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_eDirectoryMerge
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_eDirectoryRepairAndLogfile
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_EA
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_eDirectory88_Plugins
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_eDirExtended
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_ER
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_fileman
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_ICEWizardModule
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_ifolder3
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_IndexManagerPlugin
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_Kerberos
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_LDAPConfiguration
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_LinuxUserManagement
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_ncs
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_NMAS
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_NetStorage
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_nssmgmt
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_dhcp
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_CertServerPlugins
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_PS
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_novell_imanager_pwdmanagement_plugins
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_notfconfig
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_pwdpolicy
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_SharedContentV1
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_QFSearch
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_RWiz
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_samba
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_ServiceManager
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_SMS
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_SNMPConfiguration
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_storage
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_WanManConfiguration
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_iman_supportpack
Mar 15  2010 Uninstall_iPrintX
Nov  2 20:02 Uninstall_dns

You could actually take this one step further and remove the Uninstall_ prefix by filtering output through sed so command becomes

ls -lrt /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/UninstallerData/ | cut -d " " -f 6- | sed -e 's/Uninstall_//'

producing

oeslinux:~ # ls -lrt /var/opt/novell/iManager/nps/UninstallerData/ | cut -d " " -f 6- | sed -e 's/Uninstall_//'

Mar 15  2010 base
Mar 15  2010 
Mar 15  2010 fw
Mar 15  2010 afp
Mar 15  2010 ark
Mar 15  2010 eDirectoryBackupAndRestore
Mar 15  2010 cifsmgmt
Mar 15  2010 CaseSensitivePassword
Mar 15  2010 dfsmgmt
Mar 15  2010 eDirectoryMerge
Mar 15  2010 eDirectoryRepairAndLogfile
Mar 15  2010 EA
Mar 15  2010 eDirectory88_Plugins
Mar 15  2010 eDirExtended
Mar 15  2010 ER
Mar 15  2010 fileman
Mar 15  2010 ICEWizardModule
Mar 15  2010 ifolder3
Mar 15  2010 IndexManagerPlugin
Mar 15  2010 Kerberos
Mar 15  2010 LDAPConfiguration
Mar 15  2010 LinuxUserManagement
Mar 15  2010 ncs
Mar 15  2010 NMAS
Mar 15  2010 NetStorage
Mar 15  2010 nssmgmt
Mar 15  2010 dhcp
Mar 15  2010 CertServerPlugins
Mar 15  2010 PS
Mar 15  2010 novell_imanager_pwdmanagement_plugins
Mar 15  2010 notfconfig
Mar 15  2010 pwdpolicy
Mar 15  2010 SharedContentV1
Mar 15  2010 QFSearch
Mar 15  2010 RWiz
Mar 15  2010 samba
Mar 15  2010 ServiceManager
Mar 15  2010 SMS
Mar 15  2010 SNMPConfiguration
Mar 15  2010 storage
Mar 15  2010 WanManConfiguration
Mar 15  2010 iman_supportpack
Mar 15  2010 iPrintX
Nov  2 20:02 dns

(note the unknown plug-in listed second)

Perhaps not the best example to use but you can see that I've just updated the DNS Management plug-in having installed the server ready for presenting at BrainShare 2010 and then not updating since (not wanting to break a working demo!).

Don't forget that at a NetWare server console you can use the dir command that becomes available when you load TBX.NLM (or TOOLBOX.NLM). Or of course you can can connect from a Windows or Linux machine.

Now as I noted earlier, the date of the directory is when the plug-in was installed or last updated and this is important because it appears that you can only uninstall a plug-in once - only one Uninstall_ directory is possible per plug-in as only the plug-in name is used and no date/time-stamp.