Rpm And Patches - Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER 11 - ADMINISTRATION Administration Manual

(even if no additional dependencies exist), it may be helpful to rebuild the RPM database
using the option --rebuilddb.

4.2.3 RPM and Patches

To guarantee the operational security of a system, update packages must be installed
in the system from time to time. Previously, a bug in a package could only be eliminated
by replacing the entire package. Large packages with bugs in small files could easily
result in this scenario. However the SUSE RPM offers a feature enabling the installation
of patches in packages.
The most important considerations are demonstrated using pine as an example:
Is the patch RPM suitable for my system?
To check this, first query the installed version of the package. For pine, this can
be done with
rpm -q pine
pine-4.44-188
Then check if the patch RPM is suitable for this version of pine:
rpm -qp --basedon pine-4.44-224.i586.patch.rpm
pine = 4.44-188
pine = 4.44-195
pine = 4.44-207
This patch is suitable for three different versions of pine. The installed version in
the example is also listed, so the patch can be installed.
Which files are replaced by the patch?
The files affected by a patch can easily be seen in the patch RPM. The rpm param-
eter -P allows selection of special patch features. Display the list of files with the
following command:
rpm -qpPl pine-4.44-224.i586.patch.rpm
/etc/pine.conf
/etc/pine.conf.fixed
/usr/bin/pine
or, if the patch is already installed, with the following command:
rpm -qPl pine
/etc/pine.conf
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