[pca] Patching non-global zones

[Martin Paul]

Simon,

I had hoped someone else would follow up, as my practical experience 
with zones (and patching them) is close to zero.

> I patch the global zone and allow pca to patch the non-global zone as
> well.
> 
> When I query any missing patches in the non-global zone it reports many
> but when I try to apply them they are nearly all "global zone only"
> patches.

I'm not sure whether you're supposed to install patches in local zones 
if you already installed them in the global zone with allowing 
installation in the local zones as well (ie. without "-G").

From: http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/817-1592/z.pkginst.ov-1?a=view

   All patches applied at the global zone level are applied across all
   zones. When a non-global zone is installed, it is at the same patch
   level as the global zone. When the global zone is patched, all
   non-global zones are similarly patched. This action maintains the same
   patch level across all zones.

So I guess it's normal that you see "global zone only"-patches when 
running pca in the local zone - you're not supposed to install those, 
and all others have already been propagated to the local zones by 
installing them in the global zone.

> Can pca determine if it is in a non-global zone and then not display
> these patches or is there nothing in the patch to indicate it is for a
> global zone only?

pca uses the patchdiag.xref file to determine whether a patch applies to 
a system (or zone, in that case), but this file has no information about 
whether patch is for the global zone only. I think you have to look at 
the pkginfo files of the packages included in a patch to check for the 
"SUNW_PKG_ALLZONES" setting. Details are in the man page for patchadd 
and pkginfo(4).

Hopefully somebody will correct me if I'm talking nonsense.

Martin.