Now that some of the systems I have to regularly patch are Solaris 10 ones, I have to get used to the new patch return codes which one can see when applying one of the Sun’s recommended patchsets. It’s similar to the Solaris 8/9 patchset installation codes, but there are more codes added to the list.
Solaris 10 patch error codes
Exit Meaning code 0 No error 1 Usage error 2 Attempt to apply a patch that's already been applied 3 Effective UID is not root 4 Attempt to save original files failed 5 pkgadd failed 6 Patch is obsoleted 7 Invalid package directory 8 Attempting to patch a package that is not installed 9 Cannot access /usr/sbin/pkgadd (client problem) 10 Package validation errors 11 Error adding patch to root template 12 Patch script terminated due to signal 13 Symbolic link included in patch 14 NOT USED 15 The prepatch script had a return code other than 0. 16 The postpatch script had a return code other than 0. 17 Mismatch of the -d option between a previous patch install and the current one. 18 Not enough space in the file systems that are targets of the patch. 19 $SOFTINFO/INST_RELEASE file not found 20 A direct instance patch was required but not found 21 The required patches have not been installed on the manager 22 A progressive instance patch was required but not found 23 A restricted patch is already applied to the package 24 An incompatible patch is applied 25 A required patch is not applied 26 The user specified backout data can't be found 27 The relative directory supplied can't be found 28 A pkginfo file is corrupt or missing 29 Bad patch ID format 30 Dryrun failure(s) 31 Path given for -C option is invalid 32 Must be running Solaris 2.6 or greater 33 Bad formatted patch file or patch file not found 34 Incorrect patch spool directory 35 Later revision already installed 36 Cannot create safe temporary directory 37 Illegal backout directory specified 38 A prepatch, prePatch or a postpatch script could not be executed 39 A compressed patch was unable to be decompressed 40 Error downloading a patch 41 Error verifying signed patch 42 Error unable to retrieve patch information from SQL DB. 43 Error unable to update the SQL DB. 44 Lock file not available 45 Unable to copy patch data to partial spool directory.
Be careful with this list: the exit codes were never officially documented (and thus never really supported) so Sun is at liberty to change these at will, without notification.
In fact this is indeed the case with Solaris 10’s new patching mechanism that was introduced when zones were introduced. The only reliable exit codes are 0 and >0 (see the patchadd(1M) man page) and you’ll find the exit codes very rarely actually match this list unless you use the -t option to patchadd.
Note, the -t option is NOT compatible with zones.
Like with any application with undocumented exit codes, your only option is to check for 0 and if it’s not 0, read the log/output to determine why it failed.
Hi Colin,
Thanks for leaving a comment! You’re quite right about the rule of thumb: if it’s 0, things are green, if it’s anything else – watch out. I always end up checking the install logs, sometimes for each patch, just to make sure the patching is successful.
For patching goodness check out PCA – “patch check advanced” it is simply a perl script by a dude, but ohmygod it rules compared to the built in sun tools.
Is there an exact url for this path check advanced? Thanks!