An example of installing an SGI patch on Irix 6.5.2 with commentary

This is a transcript of the installation of a security patch on an SGI. The details may differ between specific versions of Irix and in particular between Irix 5 and Irix 6. To determine which version of irix you are running, run the command "uname -R".

# uname -R
6.5 6.5.2m

The -R option is unique to Irix and gives two numbers. The second (ignoring the trailing character) is the real version number.

Unix Support makes available all the patches SGI make publicly available from their NFS server nfs-uxsup.csx.cam.ac.uk in the /public_patches/SGI directory. On a standardly set up Irix 6 system you can get to this by changing directory to /hosts/nfs-uxsup.csx.cam.ac.uk/public_patches/SGI.

# cd /hosts/nfs-uxsup.csx.cam.ac.uk/public_patches/SGI
# ls
4.0.1            6.0              6.3              6.5.2
4.0.5            6.0.1            6.4              README.filelist
5.2              6.1              6.5
5.3              6.2              6.5.1
# cd 6.5.2
# ls
patch3511.pgp.and.chksums  patch3511.tar
patch3511.relnotes

It so happens that at the time of going to press there is only one public patch for Irix 6.5.2. Typically there would be more. We now make a temporary directory for the patch to be unpacked into. (If there were multiple patches we would unpack them all into this same directory.) Note that we don't just use /tmp but create a subdirectory of it, /tmp/patches. (The name is unimportant.) You should read the release notes in the patchNNNN.relnotes file. In particular, this will tell you if you need ot reboot your system after applying the patch(es).

# mkdir /tmp/patches
# cp patch3511.tar /tmp/patches
# cd /tmp/patches
# tar -xvf patch3511.tar
x README.patch.3511, 3906 bytes, 8 blocks
x patchSG0003511, 742 bytes, 2 blocks
x patchSG0003511.ToolTalk_man, 2888 bytes, 6 blocks
x patchSG0003511.ToolTalk_sw, 164468 bytes, 322 blocks
x patchSG0003511.idb, 498 bytes, 1 block

We now run the SGI package manipulation tool, inst, to install the patch. Note that inst remembers the last directory it did installations from and sets that as its inappropriate default.

# inst

Default distribution to install from: 812-0766-002/dist

For help on inst commands, type "help overview".
Inst 3.5 Main Menu

 1. from [source ...]            Specify location of software to be installed
 2. open [source ...]            Specify additional software locations
 3. close [source ...]           Close a software distribution location
 4. list [keywords] [names]      Display information about software subsystems
 5. go                           Perform software installation and removal now
 6. install [keywords] [names]   Select subsystems to be installed
 7. remove [keywords] [names]    Select subsystems to be removed
 8. keep [keywords] [names]      Do not install or remove these subsystems
 9. step [keywords] [names]      Interactive mode for install/remove/keep
10. conflicts [choice ...]       List or resolve installation conflicts
11. help [topic]                 Get help in general or on a specific word
12. view ...                     Go to the View Commands Menu
13. admin ...                    Go to the Administrative Commands Menu
14. quit                         Terminate software installation

We tell inst to open a new source of input for its packages, namely the current working directory.

Inst> open .
Reading product descriptions .. 100% Done.

We can now see what the patches on offer are. Note the "i NA" status of the two patches. This means ("i") the patch will be installed unless you tell inst otherwise, ("N") that the patch is new, an upgrade or addition to what you have installed at the moment, and ("A") that the patch is capable of being installed.

Inst> list
  View:      distribution
  Status:    N=new, U=upgrade, S=same, D=downgrade, P=patch upgrade
  Status:    A=installable patch, X=uninstallable patch
  Stream:    maint
  Selection: i=install, r=remove, k=keep

  Subsystem Types [bdrpoc]:  b=reBoot needed, d=Default, r=Required, p=patch,
             o=overlay, c=Client only

i NA patchSG0003511.ToolTalk_man.relnotes [p]  8+  patch 3511 relnotes
i NA patchSG0003511.ToolTalk_sw.runtime [p]  340+  ToolTalk rpc.ttdbserverd

Disk space summary (Kbytes):            /

Current free space                2942572 
- Selections net change               348+
- Temporary inst overhead            1028+
= Minimum free during install     2941196 

Final projected free space        2942224 

As, presumably, we are happy with these patches being installed, we give inst the go-ahead to install them.

Inst> go
Pre-installation check ..   8% 
Checking space requirements ..  16% 
Installing/removing files ..  16% 
Installing new versions of selected patchSG0003511.ToolTalk_man subsystems
Installing/removing files ..  44% 
Installing new versions of selected patchSG0003511.ToolTalk_sw subsystems
Installing/removing files ..  94% 
Running exit-commands ..  99% 
Checking dependencies .. 100% Done.
Installations and removals were successful.
You may continue with installations or quit now.

We can now leave inst. Note that the last phase, "requickstarting ELF files" can be very slow.

Inst> quit
Requickstarting ELF files (see rqsall(1)) .. 100% Done.

#

This completes the installation of the patch.