Chapter 17. Installing and Managing System Software Patches
Patch administration involves installing or removing Solaris patches from a running Solaris system. It may also involve removing or backing out unwanted or faulty patches.
A patch is a collection of files and directories that replaces or updates existing files and directories to facilitate proper execution of the software. The existing software is derived from a specific package format, which conforms to the Application Binary Interface. See Chapter 14, “Package Commands,” for more information about packages.
The Solaris Operating Environment includes the following two commands for administering patches.
patchadd—Use to install directory-format patches to a Solaris system.
patchrm—Use to remove patches installed on a Solaris system. This command restores the file system to its state before a patch was applied.
These commands replace the installpatch and backoutpatch commands that previously shipped with each individual patch.
Detailed information about how to install and back out a patch is provided in the Install.info file that accompanies each patch. Each patch also contains a README file that contains specific information about the patch.
Note
Some patches require you to take special actions. These instructions may be in the README file or in the Install.info file.
Before installing patches, you need to know what patches have previously been installed on the system. Table 74 shows commands that provide useful information about existing patches.
 | The showrev -p command is part of the old way of installing and managing packages, along with the self-contained patch installation scripts that came with every patch. The patchadd -p is part of the new patch maintenance scheme introduced in the Solaris 2.6 release with the patchadd and patchrm commands. Both commands show the same information for each patch—Patch, Obsoletes, Requires, Incompatibles, and Packages—but sort the patches differently. |
The following example shows the beginning of the output of the showrev -p command for the system castle. You do not need superuser privileges to run the showrev command.
castle% showrev -p Patch: 109134-05 Obsoletes: Requires: 110113-01, 109318-06 Incompatibles: Packages: SUNWwbapi, SUNWwbcor, SUNWwbcou, SUNWmgapp Patch: 109965-01 Obsoletes: Requires: Incompatibles: Packages: SUNWpamsx, SUNWpamsc Patch: 109889-01 Obsoletes: 109353-04 Requires: Incompatibles: Packages: SUNWkvmx, SUNWkvm, SUNWctu, SUNWhea, SUNWmdb, SUNWpstl, SUNWpstlx Patch: 110131-01 Obsoletes: Requires: Incompatibles: Packages: SUNWkvmx, SUNWkvm, SUNWhea, SUNWmdb, SUNWpstl, SUNWpstlx Patch: 110132-02 Obsoletes: Requires: Incompatibles: Packages: SUNWkvmx, SUNWkvm, SUNWhea Patch: 110229-01 Obsoletes: Requires: Incompatibles: Packages: SUNWkvmx, SUNWkvm, SUNWhea, SUNWmdb, SUNWpstl, SUNWpstlx Patch: 110096-04 Obsoletes: 110118-02, 110201-01, 110121-01, 110134-02, 110141-02 Requires: Incompatibles: Packages: SUNWkvmx, SUNWcsu, SUNWcsr, SUNWcslx, SUNWcsl, SUNWcarx, SUNWcar, SUNWcpr, SUNWcprx, SUNWcsxu, SUNWdrr, SUNWdrrx, SUNWidn, SUNWidnx, SUNWarc, SUNWarcx, SUNWcstl, SUNWcstlx, SUNWhea, SUNWtnfc, SUNWtnfcx Patch: 110135-01 Obsoletes: Requires: Incompatibles: Packages: SUNWkvmx, SUNWcsr, SUNWcarx ...(Additional lines deleted from this example)
 | The following example shows the output of the patchadd -p command for the system castle. You must be superuser to run the patchadd command. |
castle% patchadd -p You must be root to execute this script. Patchadd is terminating. castle% su Password: # patchadd -p Patch: 108528-03 Obsoletes: 109153-01, 109656-01, 109291-06, 109663-01, 109309-02, 109345-02 Requires: Incompatibles: Packages: FJSVhea, SUNWcar, SUNWcarx, SUNWcpr, SUNWcprx, SUNWcsr, SUNWcsu, SUNWcsxu, SUNWdrr, SUNWdrrx, SUNWhea, SUNWidn, SUNWidnx, SUNWmdb, SUNWmdbx, SUNWpmr, SUNWpmu, SUNWpmux, SUNWsrh, SUNWtnfc, SUNWtnfcx Patch: 108979-10 Obsoletes: 109296-05, 109348-05, 109350-06 Requires: 108528-03 Incompatibles: Packages: FJSVhea, SUNWcar, SUNWcarx, SUNWcsl, SUNWcslx, SUNWcsr, SUNWcstl, SUNWcstlx, SUNWcsu, SUNWcsxu, SUNWhea Patch: 109888-02 Obsoletes: 109352-05 Requires: 108979-08 Incompatibles: Packages: FJSVhea, SUNWcar, SUNWcarx, SUNWcsr, SUNWhea Patch: 108664-04 Obsoletes: Requires: Incompatibles: Packages: SMEvplr, SMEvplu Patch: 109221-04 Obsoletes: 108960-01 Requires: Incompatibles: Packages: SUNWadmap, SUNWadmc ...(Additional lines deleted from this example)
 | The following example shows the output for the SUNWcsr package with the pkgparam pkgid PATCHLIST command. You do not need superuser privileges to run the pkgparam command. |
castle% pkgparam SUNWcsr PATCHLIST
108723-01 108725-02 108875-07 108901-03 109041-02 109147-06 109181-02 109202-01
109236-01 109279-06 109324-01 109454-01 109458-01 109472-03 109576-01 109657-01
109740-02 109742-02 109764-02 109877-01 109883-01 109898-01 109920-03 110075-01
108528-03 108727-04 108964-03 108966-05 108974-06 108977-01 108979-10 108983-04
108984-03 108989-02 108991-05 108993-01 108995-01 108997-03 108999-01 109003-01
109005-01 109009-01 109785-01 109874-02 109876-01 109879-01 109882-02 109885-02
109888-02 109894-01 109896-02 109900-01 109904-01 109906-01 109954-01 108968-02
108972-04 110122-02 110180-01 110182-01 110186-01 110196-01 110225-01 110096-04
110113-02 110135-01 110136-02 110137-01 110138-01 110139-03 110140-01 110228-01
110233-01 110234-01 110246-01 110144-04 110146-02
castle%
 | The following example shows the output for patch 108723-01 for the SUNWcsr package with pkgparam pkgid PATCH_INFO_patchno. |
castle% pkgparam SUNWcsr PATCH_INFO_108723-01
Installed: Mon Sep 18 15:39:13 PDT 2000 From: fern Obsoletes: Requires:
Incompatibles:
castle%