Patching Solaris 10 with "smpatch"

The steps to patch Solaris 10 using the smpatch command is given below:

- Check for updates using the command: smpatch analyze

- Download the patches: smpatch download

(System will respond with messages like "120544-15 has been validated." after each patch is downloaded.

- The patches get downloaded to the /var/sadm/spool directory as jar files. Extract the jar files using the command jar xvf

- Install the patch: smpatch add -i 120544-15

If there are several patches to be installed, you can create a file with the list of patches and then run the following command (instead of running "smpatch add" for each patch).

smpatch add -x idlist=/var/sadm/spool/newpatch (newpatch is the name of the file which has the patch file names).

The system responds with messages like these after each patch is installed:

add patch 120544-15
Patch 120544-15 has been successfully installed.
Validating patches...
Loading patches installed on the system...
Done!
Loading patches requested to install.
Done!
Checking patches that you specified for installation.
Done!
Approved patches will be installed in this order:
120544-15

Note: A file named "patchpro_dnld_2010.01.05@04:52:09:IST.txt" would be present in the /var/sadm/spool directory. Some patches may require a system reboot. The system can be rebooted after all the patches are installed.

The patchadd command can also be used to install patches. Here, the patches would have to be downloaded manually before installation (unlike smpatch).

Patches can also be installed via the GUI tool "Update Tool". This is probably the easiest method. All you have to do is to select the patches you would like to install and hit the Install updates button.