Adding an Unsigned Solaris Patch

You can use the following tools to add unsigned patches to servers or standalone systems:

• patchadd

• smpatch

• Solaris Management Console's Patch Manager

If you need to add a patch to a diskless client system, see Patching Diskless Client OS Services.

When you add a patch, the patch tools call the pkgadd command to install the patch packages from the patch directory to a local system's disk. More specifically, the patch tools do the following:

• Determine the Solaris version number of the managing host and the target host

• Update the patch package's pkginfo file with information about patches obsoleted by the patch being installed, other patches required by this patch, and patches incompatible with this patch

During patch installation, the patchadd command keeps a log of the patch installation in the /var/sadm/patch/patch-ID/log file for current Solaris versions.

The patchadd command will not install a patch under the following conditions:

• The package is not fully installed on the host.

• The patch packages architecture differs from the system's architecture.

• The patch packages version does not match the installed package's version.

• A patch with the same base code and a higher version number is already installed.

• The patch is incompatible with another, already installed patch. Each installed patch keeps this information in its pkginfo file.

• The patch being installed requires another patch that is not installed.

When you add or remove patches with the smpatch command, the command prompts you for authentication information if you do not specify the information in the command line.

You can specify authentication information to the smpatch command using the following syntax:

# smpatch add -p mypassword -u root -- -i patch-ID-revision

The smpatch subcommands, such as add or remove, are separated from the authentication options and arguments by --.

Or, you can let the smpatch command prompt you for the authentication information.

# /usr/sadm/bin/smpatch add -i patch-ID-revision
Type /? for help, pressing <enter> accepts the default denoted by [ ]
Please enter a string value for: password :: 
Loading Tool: com.sun.admin.patchmgr.cli.PatchMgrCli from holoship
Login to holoship as user root was successful.
Download of com.sun.admin.patchmgr.cli.PatchMgrCli from holoship was 
successful.