Patch Hell in Solaris 9

From: Andreas Borchert (borchert_at_mathematik.uni-ulm.de)
Date: 04/02/04 

Date: 2 Apr 2004 18:51:39 +0200

Solaris HW releases come with a set of already applied patches.
The SUNWcarx.u package of s9u5, for example, has already been patched
by 113278-04 (among many other patches). 113278-04 includes, however,
updates for a far larger set of packages: SUNWcarx, SUNWcsr, SUNWhea,
SUNWnfscu, and SUNWnfssu. Unfortunately, SUNWnfssu was not patched by
113278-04 within the s9u5 release, leaving us with an incompatible
combination of /usr/lib/nfs/nfsd and the RPC system, causing the
registration of nfsd to fail.

The fundamental problem of the Solaris patch system is that patches
cover multiple packages. patchadd does not install patches if some of
the packages are not installed. However, some HW releases (as in the
example above) apply patches partially only. And the patch system fails
if one of the packages gets removed and newly installed.

Is there any hope for a package/patch system of Solaris which makes
it easier to maintain a consistent system?

Andreas. 

-- 
Dr. Andreas F. Borchert, SAI, Universitaet Ulm | Habe Mut, dich deines
Helmholtzstrasse 18, E02, Tel +49 731 50-23572 | eigenen Verstandes zu
http://www.mathematik.uni-ulm.de/sai/borchert/ | bedienen! -- I. Kant

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