Re: Antwort: Re: Request for comments on binary RPM patch packages

[Christof Pintaske <Christof Pintaske sun com>]

johannes.grumboeck@porsche.co.at wrote:

> [...]
>
> PS: What's the way SuSE does it?
>  
SuSE uses a modified version of rpm that allows to apply patches. The 
patches themselfs don't appear in the rpm database but the product is 
updated.

For example:
   rpm -i product-1.0.0.rpm
   rpm -i --patch product-update-1.0.1.patch
leads to having  product-1.0.1 in the database. product-1.0.0 is gone, 
there's only 1.0.1. The patch itself isn't present, so you can only 
deinstall product-1.0.1. It's essentially the same as if you had 
installed only product-1.0.1.

I don't remember the actuall rpm commandline options for patching so the 
ones I used in the example are probably wrong, I hope you get the picture.

SuSE offers updates for their Linux distribution using this patch 
mechanism (see for example: 
http://www.suse.com/us/private/download/updates/81_i386.html)

best regards
Christof