This chapter provides an overview of the concepts and features of the
patch kits for the Tru64 UNIX operating system and TruCluster Software (TCR)
products.
1.1 Overview
Patch kits provide interim maintenance that prevents the occurrence of known critical problems with the Tru64 UNIX operating system and the TruCluster Software products. These kits, which are distributed as needed, contain the following elements:
Version-specific patches and patch-specific documentation
A patch-management utility for installing, viewing, removing, and managing patches
Patch kits are not intended to provide general maintenance and new functions;
applying them to your system does not obviate the need to upgrade to later
versions of Tru64 UNIX and TCR.
1.1.1 Applicability of Patch Kits
Patch kits are applicable to a specific version of the software products,
unless stated otherwise in the patch kit release notes.
You cannot install
version-specific kits on other software versions.
Compaq recommends
that you install all of the patches included in the kits and that you update
the TCR products (if applicable) at the same time you update your operating
system.
1.1.2 Patch Kit Distributions
Tru64 UNIX and TCR patch kits are available from the Internet and on CD-ROM.
Patch Kits on the Internet
Patch kits are available publicly on the Internet through the Compaq Services Web page located at:
http://www.support.compaq.com/patches
Patches distributed over the Internet are provided in a tar file that you must unpack on your system or on an NFS mountable file system.
The tar file for each operating system version will contain patch kits for that version of the operating system and patch kits for the applicable TruCluster Software Products. For example, the Tru64 UNIX 4.0F and TruCluster 1.6 patch tar file contains the Tru64 UNIX 4.0F and TCR 1.6 patch kits.
The content of each patch tar file is summarized in the 00-READ-ME-FIRST file contained in the tar file. This letter should be the first thing you read after unpacking the tar file.
The Tru64 UNIX Patch CD-ROM contains all of the latest patch kits for the supported versions of Tru64 UNIX and TCR. The patch kits on the CD-ROM are provided in an expanded form (rather than a tar file) so they can be installed directly from the disk. The 00-READ-ME-FIRST file on the CD-ROM lists the contents of the disk and provides other information.
You can order a Patch CD-ROM in the United States can by calling 1-800-344-4825 (1-800-ATCOMPAQ); customers in other countries should contact your local Compaq sales office or authorized reseller for pricing and availability. The order number is QA-MT4AW-H8.
Each patch kit contains the following components:
Documentation
The
Patch Summary and Release Notes, which contains summaries
and full descriptions of the problems that the patches correct, and provides
any information you may need to know about specific patches.
The information
in this document also exists in separate files that you can access using the
dupatch
utility.
(See
Section 2.3.)
The Installation Instructions (the manual you are reading) is common to all patch kits.
Both of these manuals are provided in PDF and HTML formats. The PDF version is easy to view and print using Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is provided on the Documentation CD-ROM that ships with Tru64 UNIX Version 4.0E and higher, and is also available at the Adobe Web site (http://www.adobe.com/). The HTML version is viewed with your Internet browser, such as Netscape.
Patch management utility (dupatch)
Installs, removes, and manages patches for Tru64 UNIX and TCR. This utility is installed and left on the system through the successful installation of a patch kit.
Patch subsets for the operating system and TruCluster Server products.
A patch is a collection of files that contain fixes to problems. When possible, patches are merged together, into one patch, if they have intersecting files or codependencies. A patch may correct one or more problems.
Each patch is packaged in its own
setld
subset.
The subsets are managed by a utility named
dupatch.
Each patch kit contains all of the product version-specific patches available at the time of its manufacture. You can selectively install and remove each patch.
Note
Even though selective patch installation capabilities exist, Compaq recommends that you install all patches in each kit for Tru64 UNIX and TCR to prevent the occurrence of known and corrected software problems.
When you obtain a patch kit from the Internet, the kit is provided in
a single
tar file, which you must expand
to install.
Figure 1-1
illustrates the contents of this
file.
The
Tru64 UNIX Patch CD-ROM
provides patch kits
for several versions of the operating system, and each kit is already expanded.
Figure 1-1: Structure of a Patch Kit Tar File
You run
dupatch
to install, remove, and manage official
patches for the Tru64 UNIX operating system and TCR.
After you install
the patches, the following items are left on the system:
The
dupatch
utility (/usr/sbin/dupatch)
Patch-specific documentation that you can view with
dupatch
Optionally, the archived system files that were updated by the installed patches
The following sections describe the syntax for the names of the
patch kits .
1.3 Patch Kit Naming
Patch kit names have the following syntax:
OS Product|Version|KitType|Kit#|-MfgDate|.FileType
The following list describes the attributes currently used in patch kit names:
DU = DIGITAL UNIX
T64 = Tru64 UNIX (some versions of Tru64 UNIX may have the DU label)
V50A
V50
V40G
V40F
V40E
V40D
AS = Aggregate Selective (a kit that contains multiple patches)
SS = A patch kit containing a single patch (rarely used)
The numeric identifier that Compaq uses to track the kit contents
This is the year, month, and day the kit was built and is in the form of YYYYMMDD
.tar
For example, a file named
DUV40FAS0004-20000613.tar
contains Patch Kit 1 for Tru64 UNIX Version 4.0F and TruCluster Server
Version 1.6, manufactured on June 13.
1.4 Patch Kit Installation Requirements
To successfully install Tru64 UNIX or TCR patch kits, your system must meet the following requirements:
Be running the appropriate version of Tru64 UNIX or TCR.
Contain the necessary temporary and permanent storage space described in the Patch Summary and Release Notes document for the kit you are installing.