Lofland bLOG

patchadd -p will list the installed patches

from console

patchadd PATCHNAME

this is done in multi-user mode

If it asks you, go to single user mode. The patch may actually tell you that it is better to go to single user mode.

To drop to single user mode on SUN:
init s

SUN requires the root password when you go to single-user mode
(You can’t “backdoor” SUN machines from single-user mode. If you don’t know the root password you have to boot from CD and mount the root file system and change the root password that way, kind of like Windows NT.)

Again, now in single user mode, the command is the same:
patchadd PATCHNAME

to get out of single user mode:
exit

It will ask you what runlevel to go to, and you want 3

NOTE: (This is Solaris specific:)

There is a huge difference between patchadd and pkgadd as pertaining to the -d option. Short story is you should NEVER use the -d option with patchadd. Unlike pkgadd where the -d specifies the device (location) for the package, the -d in patchadd tells it not to backup the files being patched, i.e you can never remove the patch if you need to….That is a bad thing. From the man pages:

patchadd:

-d Does not back up the files to be patched. The patch cannot be removed.

pkgadd:

-d device
Install or copy a package from device. device can be a
full path name to a directory or the identifiers for
tape, floppy disk, or removable disk (for example,
/var/tmp or /floppy/floppy_name ). It can also be a
device alias (for example, /floppy/floppy0).