[pca] Running summary

Craig Bell Craig.Bell at standard.com
Tue Feb 23 00:26:18 CET 2010


  Dear Martin,

  A casual request:   Could pca show a brief session summary after each
patch?    Perhaps something like:

"Done -- 12:34:56 PST -- 00:10:30 elapsed, 02:30:40 total -- 103
successful, 1 skipped, 0 failed"

  Background:  We monitor each pca session, in case of unforeseen
problems (i.e. /var fills up).  We patch multiple hosts at once, so it
can be difficult to recall the state of each host is along the way.  As
I cycle through all of my terminals, it would aid our understanding to
see interim summaries.

  I would find it quite useful to see a timestamp, the elapsed time for
the last patch (and cumulative for the entire run), plus the running
tally of outcomes.   Using "-debug" prints a timestamp when calling
patchadd, but this option is otherwise more verbose than I care to see
during a typical patch run.

  We use "--syslog", so we can still go through the logs afterwards
(unless I forget to start syslog in runlevel S).  I can also review
/var/sadm/patch timestamps, if needs be.  It's merely simpler to see all
of this distilled in the pca output where I can follow along live, and
keep it handy after the system logs roll off.  

  I imagine that accustomed users would (understandably) see this as
visual clutter.   Also, I recall that you are careful about adding new
options, so I'm not suggesting another switch.   If you feel that pca
already prints enough information, then I would not care to spoil this
for satisfied customers.

  If it's a matter of degree, then you could use shorthand, as seen with
the list count / age, for example:   "Done (12:34:56/10:30/2:30:40) --
(103/1/0)"

  Thanks in advance for your thoughts on a running status...  -cheers,
CSB

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