[pca] confirming the validiting of a home grown patch_order file

[Thomas Gouverneur]

Martin,

I've tried to make a PoC for all this...

To generate a custom patchdiag.xref based on a patch list:

 - Register on wesunsolve.net
 - Login
 - Create a custom patch list (http://wesunsolve.net/add_clist)
 - Add some patch into it..
    *> visit a patch page, select the list in the drop down menu
       on the upper side of the page and click add...
 - get back to your panel (http://wesunsolve.net/panel)
 - Click on "Generate patchdiag.xref"

 -> This should give you a patchdiag.xref customized with only the
 patch that you requested + recursives dependancies...

I plan to allow the generation of theses patchdiag also for patch
clusters and also ease the process (outside of user lists also, just
copy/paste a list of patch and get the patchdiag associated...)

Can someone provide me feedback about theses custom patchdiag.xref ? I
didn't really tested the data that are exported there.. but I think
they should be relevant...

Kind Regards,

-- 
Thomas Gouverneur
T: +32 498 23 00 40
W: http://espix.net
M: <thomas at espix.net>


On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:40:15 +0100
Martin Paul <martin at par.univie.ac.at> wrote:

> Don O'Malley wrote:
> >> Basically, as soon as you start to use patches in the form of
> >> xxxxxx-yy with PCA it will (and has to) assume that you take care
> >> of the dependencies and the ordering yourself. If you have a
> >> self-maintained list of patches, it's probably easiest to to try
> >> to install them on a test machine to get the correct ordering.
> > Dumping all the patches in a single directory and using 'patchadd
> > -M' may help...
> 
> A recent idea for a service that Oracle could provide was to allow a
> customer to submit a list of patch-IDs and revisions, and to get a
> copy of patchdiag.xref which includes exactly these patches (plus
> required patches) in return.
> 
> This patchdiag.xref file could then be fed into PCA via its "xrefdir"
> option, and it would allow the admin to verify any system against
> (and patch up to) this very patchset.
> 
> This would not only be useful for such home-grown patch lists (which
> Oracle doesn't like anyway), but also for patching prerequisites
> enforced by some applications. E.g. Sun Studio, which always had a
> list of certain required and/or recommended patches to be installed
> to make it work flawlessly. It's a common FAQ as to how to verify
> such a list. If a patchdiag.xref with these patches would be
> provided, again checking and patching would be a breeze.
> 
> Any spare time, Don? :)
> 
> Martin.
>