[pca] Obsolete Patches

[Martin Paul]

 >> deniz rende <solariswiki at gmail.com> wrote:
 > Alexander Skwar wrote:
> What I'm right now not quite so clear about is, what happens, if 144332-10
> is obsoleted by a different patch number, let's say 165232-01? I suppose
> PCA would then install 165232-01, wouldn't it (ie. if "pca -i 14432" is run).

No, it would still show 144332. And yes, it could be argued whether that 
makes sense (see below).

>> I think I should be a little more clear on the subject. I've been working on
>> various live upgrade projects and each time when I do a lu from an older
>> update to the latest, sun provides list of patches that are needed to be
>> installed on the system before doing a lu.

.. and this list might contain patches which are obsoleted by other 
patches. I know that issue from the prerequisites of Sun Studio.

>> So I end up creating a file that contains anywhere between 10-20 patches
>> which is not a problem. If I use pca to download and install the patches
>> from this file, then sometimes pca tells me 123332-12 is obsoleted by
>> 123312-13.

Which is not a real problem.

>> In this case I am thinking either download the new patches by changing the
>> file or just download the patches in the file no matter what.

I guess you have both options when composing the list, just like Sun. I 
don't know whether they do not update the list intentionally, or just 
because no one notices that it's outdated. I tend to think that it does 
make sense not to update the list, despite the obsoletions. The 
prerequisites are fixes for certain bugs. Later revisions of patches (or 
obsoleting patches) add new fixes, but they might not be required for 
e.g. LU. Plus, as I said before, an obsoleting patch might bring in a 
long list of required patches as well, which would make the 
prerequisites list much longer without added benefit.

>> I was curious that instead of changing the file manually, can pca
>> follow up on the obsoleted patches in the file. If it warns me for
>> the obsolete patch, then could it download the newer one
>> automatically?

No, it can't do that, as of now. Actually, I just modified my local 
version to behave like you propose. It works, but I find the output a 
little confusing. When asking it to list e.g. "137109", it now shows 
137137 instead (and all its requirements), and I'm sure this will 
confuse some users. I would have to make this a command line option, and 
keep the default as it is. I'm not convinced yet that this makes sense, 
though.

Hope this helps,

Martin.