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The best place to obtain information about a specific patch is the patch's patch details page on the ITRC.
Patch Documentation
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All patches have a patch details page, a patch text file, and readme information. The patch details page should be your first choice for obtaining information because it contains the most up-to-date information available. This is not always true for the patch text file or the patch readme.
You can find the documentation at the following resources:
The patch details page and the patch text file contain the same fields and provide detailed information about a patch. Table 3-2: “Subset of Fields in Patch Text File and Patch Details Page ” shows a subset of these fields.
Table 3-2 Subset of Fields in Patch Text File and Patch Details Page |
Field
|
Description
|
|---|
| Patch Name |
The patch ID. See
“Patch Identification” for more information about the format of patch IDs.
| | Patch Description |
A terse description of the patch.
| | Creation Date | The date the patch was created. | | Post Date | The date the patch was released for general distribution. | | Warning | If the patch has an associated warning, this field shows the date the warning was issued and provides information about the warning. This field is present only if the patch has an associated warning. For more information, see “Patch Warnings”. | | Hardware Platforms - OS Releases | The hardware platforms and HP-UX OS releases where you can install the patch. | | Filesets | A listing of the filesets that compose this patch. | | Automatic Reboot? | This is set to Y if the installation of this patch requires a reboot. | | Status | The support status of the patch. For more information, see “Patch Status”. | | Critical | If this patch is considered critical, or if it supersedes a critical patch, additional information is provided. For more information, see “Critical and Noncritical Patches”. | | Category Tags | A listing of the categories associated with this patch. For more information, see “Category Tags”. | | Path Name | The location of this patch on the HP FTP servers. See Chapter 7: “Using FTP as an Alternative Patch Source”. | | Symptoms | The symptoms of the problem. | | Defect Description | A detailed description of the defect. | | Enhancement | This is set to Y if the patch is an enhancement. | | Patch Dependencies | All patches that this patch depends upon for proper operation. You must install the listed patches if you are installing this patch. For more information, see “Patch Dependencies”. | | Hardware Dependencies | The specific system models to which this patch is applicable. | | Other Dependencies | The various dependencies that cannot be described in a simple manner. For example, dependencies that are needed only under specific circumstances will be listed here. For more information, see “Patch Dependencies”. | | Supersedes | A list of all patches replaced, or superseded, by this patch. For more information, see “Ancestors and Supersession”. | | Installation Instructions | The standard installation instructions common to all patches. | | Special Installation Instructions | Any special instructions not included in those mentioned previously. This field occasionally includes dependency information. | | Patch Family Tree | The patch family tree browser shows the lineage for a specified patch. The root of the tree (the top-most patch) is the latest patch in the patch chain. Its predecessors are shown beneath it, indented to the right with an arrow symbol pointing to the succeeding patch. Patches at the same indentation level that point to the same patch have the same successor. |
Advanced Topic: The readme Attribute | |
Each patch has an SD-UX attribute called readme that you can view using the swlist command. See “Patch-Related Attributes” for more information about attributes. The readme attribute contains the patch's original text file. Be aware that, although the readme attribute allows you to quickly and conveniently access information about patches on the system, this information is static. Because of this, the readme will not contain more current information.
For example, even if a patch has an associated warning, the readme file won’t contain a Warning field. Because the command returns a large amount of text, you may want to either redirect the output to a file or pipe the output to the more command, as follows:
swlist -l product -a readme patch_id | more
You can use other variations of the swlist command to obtain the readme information for multiple patches. For example, if you want to obtain the readme information for all patches on the local system that have manual dependencies, you can use the following command (output is redirected to the manual.txt file):
swlist -l product -a readme *,c=manual_dependencies > manual.txt
Obtaining Information Using the ITRC | |
The ITRC's Patch Database is the best resource for acquiring information about a specific patch. Consult
Chapter 2: “Quick Start Guide for Patching HP-UX Systems” and Chapter 6: “Using the IT Resource Center” for more information about using the Patch Database, including information about downloading patches and satisfying dependencies.
Accessing Information on the ITRC
Log in to the ITRC at http://itrc.hp.com.
Be sure to log in to the appropriate site
(Americas/Asia Pacific or European).
Select maintenance and support (hp products).
Select find individual patches.
You are now in the Patch Database.
Select HP-UX to go to
the search for patches page.
To find instructions, select the How would you like to search?,
Search Criteria,, and read our usage guide
links.
Select the OS revision.
From the drop-down list, select Search by Patch IDs.
In the text box next to the drop-down list, enter the patch ID
for the patch you want to download. Then click search.
If it exists, the selected patch is displayed in
the search results page. Patches (possibly
differing from the patch you requested) are displayed in one to three columns.
You can display the patch details page for a specific patch by selecting the patch ID.
Unless a patch has a warning, the HP rating is represented graphically by the number of asterisks (*, **, or *** ) displayed next to a patch's ID.
If a patch has a warning, the patch has a triangular yellow icon displayed beside it.
If the patch searched for has a warning, available replacement patches
might be shown in the recommended
and most recent columns. If you choose to use a
replacement and there is a patch shown in
the recommended column, this is the
patch you should use.
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