Uninstall committed patch

[Jason Berendsen]

I need to uninstall a committed patch, and go to a previous patch. In this case we are moving Filenet software to a another server, but Filenet software will not work with the latest linker patches. When I try to remove PHSS_22478 I get the following error:
PHSS_22478 cannot be selected. This ia a patch fileset and it can not be removed because the patch has been committed.

I placed the older patch we want to revert to in /var/adm/sw/save and ran cleanup -s, thinking this would resolve the problem, but alas it didn't. I know running the latest patches is the right thing to do, but in this case the software manufacturer explicitly states only run patch PHSS_19866. How can I revert back to this patch, besides doing a system rebuild?

Thanks,

Jason

[Stefan Farrelly · Accepted solution]

Your only choices are to rebuild or try to freceably install an older version of a patch. You can try to install PHSS_19866 using some additional options;

-x allow_downdate=true
-x enforce_scripts=false

You need to try these first. If it still wont install we can possible try some other options. You could always install this patch on another server, then swlist -l file the patch and take the output into a script and create a tarfile from all the patch files, then copy to your server and untar, so at least youve got the correct versions of the files you need - even if SD thinks you have a later version installed.

[Tom Geudens]

Jason,
Before you consider Stefan's procedure ... you state : "we are moving Filenet software to another server".
Is there already other software running on that server ? If not, I would go for a system rebuild. It might cost you some more time now, but you're more certain to have a "clean" system later. Linker-stuff is used by a lot of programs ...

Regards,
Tom Geudens

P.S. Not trying to state the obvious, but removing a committed patch is not possible ...

[Cheryl Griffin]

Jason,
You followed the correct procedure. There may be another patch that is causing this process to fail. If we can't determine the cause here, I would log a support case for this.

Check for replacement patch PHSS_24303:
# swlist -l fileset -a state |grep "22478|24303"

It has no dependencies which would be the cause of failure.

Check the /var/adm/sw/swagent.log to see if any failed messages were logged.

And what were the files you placed in /var/adm/sw/saved? Maybe you did not replace the most recent patch.

See if this makes sense, I have patch A, B, & C with patch C committed and I want to go back to patch A. I would restore patch B, run cleanup, then remove patch B to get to patch A. (Depending on if patch B was committed or not, I'd swremove or use your procedure.)

[Cheryl Griffin]

Removing a commited patch is possible depending on the circumstances. For instance in a LITS situation, like PHKL_18543, it would be a nightmare. I wouldn't even go there. For a simple patch, it's a matter of restoring the correct files and running cleanup -s.

[Cheryl Griffin]

Jason,
You may have had the following patches installed previously:
PHSS_19866 --> PHSS_20014 --> PHSS_21947 -->PHSS_22478

[Tim Grantham]

I am currently attempting Stefans recommendation to do an swinstall with the -x options. This server has other software running on it like Oracle, so I want to leave a rebuild as a last option.

Cheryl, I have already removed two newer revisions of the linker patch. It is finally PHSS_22478 that won't remove properly. The other patches you noted are not on the system.

[Jason Berendsen]

Sorry, previous reply was from Jason. I was logged into someone elses workstation.