[pca] OT: timing of Sun patch releases?

[Martin Paul]

Jeff A. Earickson wrote:
> I've noticed that patches seem to come in unpredictable waves;
> generally a new wave hits the day after I've done rebootable
> patches during scheduled downtime. 

There's one kind of event which always creates a huge wave of new 
patches - right after a new Solaris has been published, many patches are 
obsoleted by new patches, and the new kernel patches also replaces a lot 
of other patches. This is happening right now, after the release of 
Solaris 10 10/09.

This is due to the "SplitGate" model used for Solaris 10 update 
releases. Gerry Haskins writes about that, e.g. in:

   http://blogs.sun.com/patch/entry/solaris_10_kernel_patchid_progression

hth,

Martin.