LaoTsao's Weblog (老曹的網路記)

PCA- Patch Check advanced

Analyze, download and install patches for Sun Solaris.
By chance, I find this patching tool PCA
Created by
Martin Paul
Institute of Scientific Computing
Nordbergstrasse 15/C/3
1090 Wien
Austria

It seems has many follower
Other say about pca

Patch Check Advanced (pca) generates lists of installed and missing patches for Sun Solaris systems and optionally downloads patches. It resolves dependencies between patches and installs them in correct order. It can be the only tool you ever need for patch management, be it on a single machine or a complete network. Just one perl script, it doesn't need compilation nor installation, and it doesn't need root permissions to run. It works on all versions of Solaris, both SPARC and x86.

Features

• Easily understandable and configurable format for the patch report, containing Recommended/Security status and age of a patch.


• Shows all missing Recommended/Security patches in one concise list. Only patches for packages which are actually installed are listed. Obsolete/Bad patches are ignored. Output can be formatted in HTML, with links to patch READMEs and downloads (Example).


• It analyzes the patch dependencies, and lists required patches in the correct order for installation.


• If requested, it downloads patches from Sun's patch server and installs them. One patch, groups of patches, or all missing patches. Start it, let it run, and return to a fully patched system.


• Set up a local patch server and speed up downloads tremendously.


• It's fast: Generating a complete patch report takes just a few seconds.


• It's small: One file, ca. 4000 lines, both code and documentation. Makes understanding and modifying the code for your own needs easy.


• It can assist in staying informed about firmware and other unbundled patches.


• All the information about a machine needed for analysis can be read from files, so you can use pca even if it doesn't run on the target machine.


• There's an auto update mechanism to keep pca itself up-to-date.

Usage of pca is free of charge for private, educational and commercial use. No responsiblity is taken for any damage caused by using pca. You may modify pca's source code to fit your local needs. If sharing modified versions of pca with others, keep a reference to the original author and distribution site.

This is a discussion and support list
To subscribe, send an empty message to pca-join@lists.univie.ac.at. To leave the list, send an empty message to pca-leave@lists.univie.ac.at.

To post to the list, send your message to pca@lists.univie.ac.at. Messages to the list from non-subscribers are allowed, but moderated. If you are not subscribed, include a note that you'd like to receive a Cc: of any reply.

Please try it out

Installation

pca doesn't need any complicated compilation, installation or registration procedure, nor root permission. It's just one perl script.

• You need perl to run pca. If you want to use any of pca's download functions, you need wget (?v1.7). Both are included in recent versions of Solaris.
• Download the script:
  
  
  
  1. stable: pca (20090408-01, Changes, Usage)
  
  
  2. develop: pca (20090506-01, Changes, Usage)
  
  
  
  and make it executable (chmod +x pca). Move it to a directory in your PATH.

  Alternatively, pca is available as an SVR4 compliant package from Blastwave (maintained by D. Clarke), from OpenCSW (CSWpca, maintained by D. Michelsen) and on Sunfreeware (maintained by S. Christensen).

• To download patches or patch READMEs from Sun, a Sun Online Account (SOA) is required. If you don't have one yet, get a free SOA and use the askauth or the user and passwd options to feed the SOA data to pca. A free SOA will grant access to security and driver patches only. To access all patches, you need to buy a Sun Service Plan and connect it to your SOA.


• Run it: pca. There is no need to run pca as root for basic usage.


• Documentation and release notes are included in the script; view it with pca --man. If you prefer documentation in man page format, get pca.8 and move it to a directory in your MANPATH.



If you are forced to use a proxy for web access, make sure that wget is configured to use it: Set http_proxy in /etc/wgetrc or $HOME/.wgetrc or use the wgetproxy option with pca.

If you do not have wget installed on your system, download the current patch cross-reference file patchdiag.xref and move it to /var/tmp/ before running pca.

Posted at 06:28PM May 17, 2009 by hstsao in Solaris 10  |  Comments[0]