Subject: Re: How do I find out which patches were applied?
From: Nick Holland <nick_(_at_)_holland-consulting_(_dot_)_net>
Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2004 21:52:28 -0400
Thorin Oakenshield wrote:
...
but how can I find out if this one was the last I applied and I'm still
missing the 022_kerberos_patch file?
TIA.
The "-C" option of patch is very useful for this. It will "attempt" to
apply the patch, but not actually change anything.
I have got into the habit of running patch three times:
1) first time, with a -C to make sure the patch applies cleanly.
2) Second time, for real
3) Third time, to make sure I really did NOT forget to remove the -C
on the second run...
That third run will produce an error message about it being a "reversed
patch", and offer to back out the changes. If I get that, it means I
actually got it in the tree.
Apparently, step one is from getting a few bad patches or conflicting
patches (lesson: don't ask five people for comments on an article. You
get either no comments or five conflicting and overlapping patches 8)
Step 3 is because...uh... I'm a royal screwup sometimes. I've learned a
certain amount of fault-tollerance. 8)
Anyway, if you try to re-apply a patch (even better, if you attempt to
do it with a -C), it will let you know...so trying to do so is a decent
test.