Applying multiple patches

Have you noticed that using swinstall to install patches quickly becomes tedious when you have multiple patches to install? Here is a procedure for combining multiple HP patches into a single patch depot. Then, you can install all the patches in a single run of swinstall.

Here is an example which combines two patches into a single depot. The patches are named PATCH1_NAME and PATCH2_NAME. Of course, you must substitute real patch names.

Unshare all the patches:


       % sh PATCH1_NAME
       % sh PATCH2_NAME

Use swcopy to copy the *.depot files into a single depot:


       % swcopy -s PATCH1_NAME.depot PATCH1_NAME @ /tmp/patch_depot    
       % swcopy -s PATCH2_NAME.depot PATCH2_NAME @ /tmp/patch_depot

Check that each patch made it into the depot using the swlist command:


       % swlist -s /tmp/patch_depot

Use swinstall to install all the patches at the same time. Start swinstall and make sure the Source Depot Path is set to the patch depot you just created (/tmp/patch_depot). You can use the Actions->Match What The Target Has to select those patches which apply to your system. Or, you can manually select them. Use Actions->Install to install the patches.
After the installation is complete, you must unregister the temporary depot you just created. Use the command
```
       % swreg -u -l depot /tmp/patch_depot   
```
Finally, remove the /tmp/patch_depot directory and it's contents from the system.
```
       % rm -rf /tmp/patch_depot
```

And REMEMBER, if you are patching your operating system, it is always a good idea to make a fresh back up of the root filesystem.