Linux patch question

[navin]

Hello we have servers with Redhat and Suse Operating systems - i would like to know when was the server last patched and is it uptodate.
In other words - as in hpux we check bundles and compare with latest patch bundles and make sure it is updated or not - i would like to perform the same thing in linux - pls advice .
Is there a patch bundle for linux as well as other operating systems HP and solaris..?

Thanks Much in advance

[J. Maestre · Accepted solution]

You can see when it was last updated by looking at /var/log/yum.log, and "yum update" will tell you if the system is up to date or not.

As far as I know there's not such thing as patch bundles in Redhat. Closest thing would be minor releases, but that's not really close anyway.

If you want to get a tighter control over package versions installed on your servers you could set up your own local mirror of the RH repositories and make your servers pull their updates from there. Your mirror's snapshot of the RH repository would work as your "patch bundle", so to speak.

[navin]

Thanks for the reply - Does the yum update works on redhat as well as suse..?
Also does it give an info about what needs to be updated?

Thanks Much Again

[Kapil Jha]

you can run
#rpm -qa --last

It would list all the patched installed date wise.

BR,
Kapil+

[Huc_1]

the following will check if there are packages to be updated

# yum check-update

# yum info 'package_name_here'

yum info will tell you some more about the package.

enjoy life.

Jean-Pierre Huc

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

This may be more than you want, but it will work with redhat, tell you when packages were installed.

Patching with RH replaces the binary and shows up as an rpm install with a new version.

rpm -qa --queryformat '%{NAME}%{VERSION}%{RELEASE}.%{ARCH} %{installtime} (%{installtime:date})\n'

SEP

[navin]

Hi ,
Thanks for your replies

rpm -qa on redhat as well as suse gave me an output like this

Suse 10.1
patch-2.5.9-160.2

Red 5
patch-2.5.4-29.2.2

Red 3
patch-2.5.4-16

Red 4
patch-2.5.4-20

Are these output represemts the whole patch bundle installed on the system? also how and where do i get or know what would be the current release of the patches for these OS levels

Your input is must respected and appreciated

[J. Maestre]

What you are getting there are the installed versions of the "patch" package, which is a program to patchs files with diffs.

You won't find one single package defining the patch level of the whole system, that only happens when you upgrade to the next minor (or major) version.
The only "patch level" you'll find in RedHat is in /etc/redhat-release. Other than that it's just per-package upgrades that you can check with yum.

[navin]

Thanks so much for this important info - i would like to find out if there is any new patches available than the installed ones for every OS i posted - is there a way to do that

thank you so much

[navin]

in other words is there a updated version of the below program available

What you are getting there are the installed versions of the "patch" package, which is a program to patchs files with diffs.

Thanks Much

[J. Maestre]

As posted above already:

-To check for updates for every package in the system:
# yum check-update

-To check for updates for a single package:
# yum check-update |grep packagename
If you were looking for updates for the "patch" package:
# yum check-update |grep patch

-To update the whole system:
# yum update

-To update a single package:
# yum update packagename

Refer to the yum documentation:
# man yum

[navin]

Thanks a lot

[Steven E. Protter]

Hi again,

I believe the format command I gave will work for Suse.

Note: yum installs will still show up on rpm -qa reports, yum is merely a very helpful front end for rpm.

SEP