Hi.

I'm right now installing "some" patches on my S10 system with PCA. I
find, that some patches seem to take forever to install. Eg.:

121606 -- < 02 --- 183 GNOME 2.6.0: Python patch
                       Download 204/398: skipped - file exists
                       Install  204/398: Aug 18 16:43:03 bprd[632]: Cannot contact NetBackup bpdbm ... will continue.
Aug 18 16:48:03 bprd[632]: Cannot contact NetBackup bpdbm ... will continue.
Aug 18 16:53:03 bprd[632]: Cannot contact NetBackup bpdbm ... will continue.



As you can see, this already took at least 10 minutes (it's more
like 20m now).

Why does it take *THAT* long?

Before I started pca -i, I downloaded all the patches and then
changed to "init 1" followed by "init s".

Thanks,

Alexander Skwar

Alexander Skwar <alexander@skwar.name> wrote:
> Hi.
> 
> I'm right now installing "some" patches on my S10 system with PCA. I
> find, that some patches seem to take forever to install. Eg.:
> 
> 121606 -- < 02 --- 183 GNOME 2.6.0: Python patch
>                       Download 204/398: skipped - file exists
>                       Install  204/398: Aug 18 16:43:03 bprd[632]: Cannot contact NetBackup bpdbm ... will continue.
> Aug 18 16:48:03 bprd[632]: Cannot contact NetBackup bpdbm ... will continue.
> Aug 18 16:53:03 bprd[632]: Cannot contact NetBackup bpdbm ... will continue.
> 
> 
> 
> As you can see, this already took at least 10 minutes (it's more
> like 20m now).
> 
> Why does it take *THAT* long?

There are quite some patches of this type. Others are PostgreSQL, Apache,
etc.

These patches are usually updates to the product (in this case from Python 2.3
to Python 2.4)

During the upgrade every file of the old python release
(in /usr/sfw/lib/python2.3, /usr/sfw/include/python2.3, etc.) has to
be deleted and also deleted from the package database. Especially removing
from the package database (via removef(1M)) is an extremely time consuming
task. The package contents file (/var/sadm/install/contents) has to be
rewritten with one line removed. If your contents file is 20MB in size
this means 20MB to write for every file to be removed.

The python patch deletes in total up to 1539(!) files, which means up to
1529 * 20MB = 30GB will be written just to /var/sadm/install/contents over
and over again.

To speed things up you can copy /var/sadm/install to /tmp (memory based
file system), lofs mount it back to /var/sadm/install and then apply the
patch. When you are done copy the contents from /tmp back to /var/sadm/install:

pax -rw -pe /var/sadm/install /tmp
mount -F lofs /tmp/install /var/sadm/install
<apply patches>
umount /var/sadm/install
pax -rw -pe /tmp/install /var/sadm/install

But beware: When the machine crashes during patching your package database
might be corrupted.

-- 
Daniel

Daniel Rock <v200733@deadcafe.de> wrote:

> But beware: When the machine crashes during patching your package
> database might be corrupted.

What will happen when I hit Ctrl+C during the patch process? I had to do
this some times because some patches did not install after hours. The
installation after that happened in minutes.

- Stephan

Stephan Windm?ller <wjkabdzzoesf@spammotel.com> wrote:
> Daniel Rock <v200733@deadcafe.de> wrote:
> 
>> But beware: When the machine crashes during patching your package
>> database might be corrupted.
> 
> What will happen when I hit Ctrl+C during the patch process? I had to do
> this some times because some patches did not install after hours. The
> installation after that happened in minutes.

I've done it many times without a problem. HOWEVER, it's not recommended.

-- 
Geoff Lane, Airstrip One

Sorry... my mind has a few bad sectors.

Publicus Nomen <news@buffy.sighup.org.uk> wrote:

>>> But beware: When the machine crashes during patching your package
>>> database might be corrupted.
>> What will happen when I hit Ctrl+C during the patch process? I had to
>> do this some times because some patches did not install after hours.
>> The installation after that happened in minutes.
> I've done it many times without a problem. HOWEVER, it's not
> recommended.

Okay, but what is recommended when the patch does not complete?

- Stephan

On 18 Aug., 20:03, "Daniel Rock" <v200...@deadcafe.de> wrote:
> Alexander Skwar <alexan...@skwar.name> wrote:
> > Hi.
>
> > I'm right nowinstalling"some"patcheson my S10 system with PCA. I
> > find, thatsomepatchesseem to take forever to install. Eg.:
>
> > 121606 -- < 02 --- 183 GNOME 2.6.0: Python patch
> >                       Download 204/398: skipped - file exists
> >                       Install  204/398: Aug 18 16:43:03 bprd[632]: Cannot contact NetBackup bpdbm ... will continue.
> > Aug 18 16:48:03 bprd[632]: Cannot contact NetBackup bpdbm ... will continue.
> > Aug 18 16:53:03 bprd[632]: Cannot contact NetBackup bpdbm ... will continue.
>
> > As you can see, this already took at least 10 minutes (it's more
> > like 20m now).
>
> > Why does it take *THAT*long?
>
> There are quitesomepatchesof this type. Others are PostgreSQL, Apache,
> etc.

[ Explanation and solution snipped ]

Wow! That was one of the most useful replies I've gotten
from Usenet in a LONG time!

Daniel, thanks a lot for your excellent answer!

Cheers,
Alexander