[pca] patch delta between two dates

[Van Bommel, Paul]

I've been asked to provide a list of patches that have been applied to a
system over a period of time. (about a year). These have been applied in
3-4 patching sessions.

We use PCA and it works very well. We record details in a single
directory on each system per patching session. Things like the download
and install output in a log  file, the patchdiag.xref used on that date,
any local pca.conf file, and the patch zip files. The zip files
sometimes get cleaned out from the local system to save space.  

My log file has a lot of details, and I was able to generate a list of
"Successfully" installed patches, but I don't trust this technique. Am I
on the right track here. (egrep '^Installing|^Successful' log.txt)

I'm starting to think I should have recorded the three files used by PCA
uname.out, showrev.out, and pkginfo.out with all the other files I was
storing. Then run PCA on the old input files with the last "baseline"
patchdiag.xref

Does anyone have a good technique to determine the delta of patches
added in a period of time. (using PCA or other tools)

What info do you record in a patch session to make your life easier when
questions like this popup?
The worst part is that I cannot go back in time to produce these file. I
can only start recording now.
I wish the base OS had some kind of version control. (not ZFS, something
in the package/patch database)

Thanks in advance.
Paul Van Bommel


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