s11 diffs README

Solaris 11: Software package diffs

Subdirectories contain comparisions between two versions of a Solaris i386 software group or set of software packages with all dependencies resolved. It is basically there to determine, which packages got removed/added to the related set dueto implicit dependencies and thus to avoid suprises, if one uses such "metadata packages"/sets to install machines or zones.

Relevant filenames have the format: OLD-NEW-WHAT.txt, with:

OLD = version of the previous SW package set
NEW = a later version of the same SW package set as for OLD

Versions follow the format: N.M.X.Y with:

N.M: the main Solaris Version, e.g. 11.1 == Solaris 11.1 aka 11u1
X.Y: Version of the Support Repository Update (SRU), e.g. 8.5 == SRU 8.5

WHAT describes, which kind of diff the file contains:

diff: contains the main infos only. Wrt. packages this includes removed or added packages, only. I.e. a package name comparision, only.
full-diff: same as diff, but also includes all packages which have a change in its version number (see option -a for ipsCompare.sh)
all: same as full-diff, but includes all packages, no matter whether its version number was changed (see option -A for ipsCompare.sh).

Notes about everything

everything in this context means, the probably largest set of all packages in the Solaris repository, which can be installed at once whithout running into trouble, i.e. no need to manipulate the system repository to get an otherwise rejected package installed.

This is one reason, why the number of packages shown in the diff file differ wrt. the number of packages shown at the Package Catalog page, when you browse a certain version on the Solaris Release Repository or the Solaris Support Repository. Another cause for the package number mismatch is, that the diffs shown here are for the i386 platform, only. So all sparc-only packages are not included here at all. Furthermore, the Package Catalog page shows packages which have changed in the browsed Solaris release version, only! Last but not least the repository contains other "metadata packages" like auto_install, text_install, babel_install, slim_install, etc. which are of course excluded by the analyzer as well as certain consolidations (kind of upper and lower bound description wrt. allowed versions of packages for a certain group) which are not always pulled in, if one installs a certain set of packages.