[pca] Solaris Update Patch Bundle updates /etc/release

[Martin Paul]

Rajiv,

> Solaris Update Patch Bundles now update /etc/release to
> make it easier to identify that a system has been patched
> to the software level of a Solaris Update release.

Yes, I read about that before. It's also described in the "Notice Board" 
at http://sunsolve.sun.com/show.do?target=patches/patch-access

This only applies to the "Solaris Update Patch Bundles", which are patch 
bundles containing the same patch set as a Solaris Update release. This 
does not mean that installing such a patch bundle will bring an existing 
OS installation to the same state as a more recent update release, as 
the bundle does not include any additional packages introduced by the 
newer release.

> How will this effect us? Can we simulate this or is this addition/change
> included as a part of kernel patch or part of their wrapper?

I just looked at the README and downloaded the ZIP file for "Solaris 10 
10/09 SPARC Bundle Part 1" from the above webpage. I expected the 
"installbundle" script to update the /etc/release file, but was wrong. 
Actually the bundle contains two special patches which update the file. 
 From the README:

   The patch bundle contains the following patchs which update
   /etc/release to indicate when the patch bandle has been successfully
   installed on a system.

   sparc:
   Patch      Reason
   144401-08: Patch bundle ID patch.

   x86:
   Patch      Reason
   144402-08: Patch bundle ID patch.

This is an elegant solution: The patches have been made to "require" all 
other patches from the patch bundle. This ensures that they can only be 
installed when all bundle-patches are installed.

While the entry in /etc/release is purely cosmetic, a question springs 
to mind immediately: Why aren't this patches published publically, and 
are added to patchdiag.xref? It would do no harm, and people who 
want/require that, would have an easy way to prove that all patches from 
a certain bundle are installed.

Martin.