[pca] How to build a patch dependencies list

[Martin Paul]

Arif Mahmood wrote:
> This is my first post. I'm trying to find a way to build a patch
> dependencies list.

pca will always list the patches in the correct order, ie. all 
dependencies resolved.

> For example I want to go to Kernel revision (Solaris 10) patch level
> 127111-10, and I want to make a list of all its depended patches
> using the patchdiag.xref, is this possible?

To list the current revision of 127111 and all the patches it depends on 
which aren't installed yet, simply run "pca -l 127111".

Be aware that 127111-11 is the current revision of this patch. The 
patchdiag.xref file only contains information about the most recent 
revisions of a patch, so there's no way to find out about the 
requirements for 127111-10 or 127111-09  or ...

In the real world, with test and production machines, you would e.g. 
freeze a copy of patchdiag.xref today and use that to patch the test 
machines (point pca at a copy of the xref file with the xrefdir option). 
During the next few days/weeks you would look for problems on the test 
machines. When you are done, you use the now outdated copy of the xref 
file to patch the production server(s). This ensures that no newer, 
untested revisions of a patch will be installed on the production 
machine without having been tested on the test machines.

Hope this helps,

Martin.