From: knobi@knobi.munich.sgi.com (Martin Knoblauch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: Easy inst question - maintenance products
Date: 10 Sep 92 11:38:22 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.

In article <1992Sep10.101858.5971@ohm.york.ac.uk>, lgt1@ohm.york.ac.uk
(Laurence Tyler (Guest - CompServ)) writes:
|> Hi.. Two easy questions about inst and maintenance products. I
|> _think_ I know the answers but I'm not 100% sure from the manual and
|> would appreciate a definitive 'yes' or 'no' on them. They both
|> relate to version numbers of software products and maintenance
|> products.
|> 
|> ------------------------------------------------------------------
|> 
|> Question 1:  When the system is upgraded, maintenance products for
|> already installed software options are applied. Does this mean the
|> software product is effectively upgraded? A concrete example:
|> 'versions' says:
|> 
|> I   ftn         09/23/91   Fortran 77, 3.4
|> I   maint_ftn   09/09/92   Fortran 77 Maint, 3.4.4
|> 
|> Is this functionally the same as having installed Fortran 3.4.4? Can
|> I regard my Fortran 3.4.1 CD-rom as being redundant?
|> 

  Yes,  ftn-3.4+maint_ftn-3.4.4 is equivalent to ftn-3.4.4. If you
have a ftn-3.4.4 image, you could throw away 3.4.1. Future updates
should apply to ftn-3.4.4 without problems.

|>
---------------------------------------------------------------------
|> 
|> Question 2:  The installation instructions for IRIX state that when
|> installing new software products _after_ the upgrade, you must
|> re-apply the maintenance products that came with the IRIX upgrade,
|> and that it must be done non-selectively, i.e. just 'list' and 'go'.
|> By default, this means inst will re-apply *all* the maintenance
|> products for everything you have installed, not just the new
|> product, which can take a *LONG TIME* and seems quite unnecessary.
|> 
|> So, if I install, say, C++ some time after the upgrade, do I
|> *really* need to let inst re-apply the maint products for pascal,
|> fortran, motif etc; or is it permissible in this case to just apply
|> the maint_c++ product? If so, why doesn't inst itself recognise that
|> some maint products need not be re-applied?
|> 

  No, for the "expert" user, it is not obligatory to install all
updates. I believe the procedure is described as it is to prevent
"non-expert" users from messing things up. That does not mean
"experts" cannot mess things up, they just will be more efficient.

  So if you installed 4.0.5 and then newly installed ftn-3.4.1 and
you want to upgrade to ftn-3.4.4, just insert the maint CD-ROM,
enter:

inst> keep *
inst> i maint_ftn
inst> go

  This should do the job. Just do a list before the 'go' to check
whether your selection "makes sense".


|> -------------------------------------------------------------------
|> 
|> If someone knows the definitive answers, I'd appreciate an email
|> response to the address below in addition to/instead of a followup
|> news article, as I need to know before the weekend.
|> 
|> Many thanks for helping a novice Unix manager!
|> 
|> Laurence Tyler
|> York University Computing Service, UK
|> 
|> email:	lgt1@tower.york.ac.uk

  I hope this helps to answer your questions.

Martin
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