/prj/install/sun_patches          Frequently Asked Questions    
Thu Mar 20 10:49:26 PST 2003

1)     What patch-level am I running now?
 A: 1. uname -a will give a quick peek at kernel-patch.
    2. showrev -p | wc -l will show how many you have..
    3. ./checkme will tell you what patches you need *from your current class*.
    4. running Sun's patchdiag in the patchdiag directory will give a detailed audit.
       cd  /prj/install/sun_patches/Patchdiag ; ./patchdiag
    5. /usr/ccs/bin/what /kernel/drv/hme
     
2)     What is patchlist.common, patchlist.current, patchlist.JS44,
       patchlist.JS42, etc..?
 A:  these are simple lists of patches which will be applied to machines
     of those specific "classes" when do-patch (./runme) is run.
     patchlist.current is maintained by rmallory (me) on a day-to-day basis.
     It may be considered unsafe, but more often than not it is safer than
     any of the other patchlists. patchlist.JSxx is a "revision controlled"
     patchlist which is meant to be frozen, tested, approved, and deployed.
     
     If you wish to create a patchlist.CLASS, simply copy the latest 
     patchlist.current (which is the lastest "shaked and baked"  patchlist)
     to patchlist.NewClass (and put the word NewClass in /etc/INSTALL_CLASS)
     and you then edit patchlist.NewClass to make it more specific.

     (eg: you will find "JS43" in /etc/INSTALL_CLASS of those machines which
      conform to the "JS43" patchlist.)  note, that you cannot go back to
      a previous release simply by installing an earlier "patch class". 

3)     How do I "get current" or put myself in a class?
  A:  echo current >> /etc/INSTALL_CLASS 
      cd /net/sysadmin/sysadmin/prj/sun_patches
      ./runme
      
      echo MYCLASS >> /etc/INSTALL_CLASS  
                 #This will then pick up patchlist.MYCLASS
      ./runme    #this will quickly and safely install patches.

5)  fastpatch -- runme now points to runme.fast which uses fastpatch.
    fastpatch is a very robust perl script written and maintained 
    by casper dik and can aid in the instalation and removal of patches.
    You should know that this does not use any installpatch -preserve
    features, and thus backoutpatch will not work. To go back in patch-time
    see next question below.

6)  so How Do I remove a patch installed with fastpatch?
    cd /prj/install/sun_patches ; ./fastpatch -o 111111-01 
    this will "obsolete it" in the database, and allow any patch
    to drop in on top of it. it will not actualy backout a patch.

7)  How do I jumpstart straight into a specific patch class?
    Ah, now this gets intreresting... check out the "class scripts"
    in the jumpstart tree, eg: 
    /jumpstart/slice0/.install_config/install/class/S96.dmz.sh
    and in that script, echo "JS44" or the other way is to have 
    that script echo "DMZ" (which it does now)  and then have a
    special patchlist.DMZ file.     (or simply by hostname,
    so you can have patchlist.mybox and it will work as expected.)