1    Introduction

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

The Tru64 UNIX and TCR patch kits contain official patches for critical problems for those software products. These kits, which are distributed as needed, provide interim maintenance that prevents the occurrence of known critical problems. The patch kits contain the following elements:

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.

Note

For information about recent changes to the installation process see Section 3.1.

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.

1.1.3    Patch Kit Contents

Each patch kit contains the following components:

1.2    Patch Kit Packaging

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 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:

OS Product

DU = DIGITAL UNIX

T64 = Tru64 UNIX (some versions of Tru64 UNIX may have the DU label)

Version

V50

V40F

V40E

V40D

KitType

AS = Aggregate Selective (a kit that contains multiple patches)

SS = A patch kit containing a single patch (rarely used)

Kit#

The numeric identifier that Compaq uses to track the kit contents

-MfgDate

This is the year, month, and day the kit was built and is in the form of YYYYMMDD

.FileType

.tar

For example, a file named DUV4-FAS0001-19990609.tar contains Patch Kit 1 for Tru64 UNIX Version 4.0F and TruCluster Server Version 1.6, manufactured on June 9, 1999.

1.4    Patch Kit Installation Requirements

To successfully install Tru64 UNIX or TCR patch kits, your system must meet the following requirements: