i like pca.

using a new tool to analyze some of my legacy sol8 systems for their patch levels. of all the patch tools i have used in the past [that of course includes sun's own tools that come and go with some regularity] martin paul's pca script is one of the nicest and easiest to use.

Patch Check Advanced (pca) generates lists of installed and missing patches for Sun Solaris systems and optionally downloads patches. It resolves dependencies between patches and installs them in correct order. It can be the only tool you ever need for patch management on a single machine or a complete network. Just one perl script, it doesn't need compilation nor installation, and it doesn't need root permissions to run. It works on all versions of Solaris, both SPARC and x86.

nice.

# pca
Using /var/tmp/patchdiag.xref from Feb/08/07
Host: xyzzy (SunOS 5.8/Generic_108528-13/sparc/sun4u)

Patch  IR   CR RSB Age Synopsis
------ -- - -- --- --- -------------------------------------------------------
108434 05 < 22 R-- 999 SunOS 5.8: 32-Bit Shared library patch for C++
108435 05 < 22 R-- 999 SunOS 5.8: 64-Bit Shared library patch for C++
112396 01 < 03 R-- 301 SunOS 5.8: /usr/bin/fgrep patch
108987 08 < 18 RS- 296 SunOS 5.8: Patch for patchadd and patchrm
111111 02 < 07 R--   4 SunOS 5.8: /usr/bin/nawk patch
108528 13 < 29 RS- 999 SunOS 5.8: kernel update  and Apache patch
108569 05 < 08 --- 999 X11 6.4.1: platform support for new hardware
108576 14 < 52 R-- 490 SunOS 5.8: Expert3D IFB Graphics Patch
108604 16 < 35 --- 999 SunOS 5.8: Elite3D AFB Graphics Patch
108605 15 < 37 --- 519 SunOS 5.8: Creator 8 FFB Graphics Patch
108606 10 < 39 --- 519 SunOS 5.8: M64 Graphics Patch
108693 07 < 28 --- 199 Solstice DiskSuite 4.2.1: Product patch
108714 05 < 08 --- 999 CDE 1.4: libDtWidget patch
108723 01 < 02 --- 284 SunOS 5.8: lofs patch
108725 09 < 25 R-- 143 SunOS 5.8: st driver patch
109147 14 < 43 RS-  24 SunOS 5.8: linker patch
119067 -- < 05 RS-  73 X11 6.4.1: Xsun patch
108773 13 < 27 RS-  37 SunOS 5.8: IIIM and X Input & Output Method patch
108806 04 < 21 R-- 301 SunOS 5.8: Sun Quad FastEthernet qfe driver
108808 30 < 44 --- 984 SunOS 5.8: Manual Page updates for Solaris 8
...

[wow, there is even a nawk patch. be still my heart...]