I inquired of the list information relating to so-called "mandatory" patches
for Solaris 2.3/SunOS 5.3.
It appears that this information came from a document entitled "Solaris 2.3
Patch Report Update" dated 02/Dec/93, which is distributed by "SunService,
A Sun Microsystems, Inc. Business", whatever that may mean, bi-weekly.
The document describes itself thus:
> This report is generated to provide a summary list of available patches
> for indicated release. There are bi-weekly updates of this report to
> help ensure visibility of latest patches.
In this document several patches are listed as being mandatory:
> Mandatory patches are considered the most
> important and highly recommended patches that avoid the most critical
> system, user, or security related bugs which have been reported and fixed
> to date, especially for large configuration server systems.
The information I have from Sun support in the UK is that this document is
intended *for internal use only*, and was mistakenly made available on
SunSolve Online sites both in the US and the UK. The document has now been
removed from these sites.
The description "mandatory" refers to patches that Sun have decided must be
installed before a software support engineer is allowed to escalate a
software call via the CTE mechanism, to avoid unnecessary escalations.
However I have been told that these patches *should not* be installed just
for the sake if it, but only if problem conditions warrant it. The word
mandatory is only intended internally for software support engineers, not
customers.
I will not post the report here, but will send it to anyone who emails *me*
and requests it.
Many thanks to those who sent me a copy of the report, and all others who
responded. Also thanks to Sun UK support for clearing up the confusion...
Roll of honour (apologies for blasted "UK email address order" :
seanw@com.amgen (Sean Ward)
merworth@edu.utexas.chpc.hermes
rich_b@COM.gpsemi.oldham (Richard Bogusz)
mcostel@com.kaman (Mark Costello)
sjk@COM.KaPRE (Scott Kamin)
Larry Belvin <Larry.Belvin@com.analog>
Richard Wong <rnw@EDU.Princeton.math>
pallas@org.oclc (George Pallas)
Christian Lawrence <cal@com.bellcore.soac>
Bill Bathurst <bathurst@gov.noaa.pmel>
Stuart McRobert <sm@uk.ac.ic.doc>
jag@com.otra (jeff goldfarb)
Christian.Hnilica@at.alcatel.aut (Christian Hnilica)
Harry@nl.philips.ms.electron
Mike Jipping <jipping@edu.hope.cs>
Lewis Muhlenkamp <ljm@dlogics.com>
Merry Christmas all,
Calum.
---- Calum D. Mackay Telephone: 0223 330378 System Administrator International: +44 223 330378MRC Biostatistics Unit Cambridge University Institute of Public Health University Forvie Site Robinson Way email: calum.mackay@mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk Cambridge CB2 2SR. alternative: cdm12@cus.cam.ac.uk ENGLAND. last resort: cdm12@phx.cam.ac.uk
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