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ptf, apar

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Mag0007

MIS
Feb 15, 2005
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what is the major difference between a PTF and an APAR?

or am I comparing apples and oranges?

 
This is what I found

PTF
Program Temporary Fix. A temporary solution or by-pass of a problem diagnosed by IBM as resulting from a defect in a current unaltered release of the program. A report of a problem caused by a suspected defect in a current unaltered release of a program.

APAR
Authorized Program Analysis Report. A report of a problem caused by a suspected defect in a current unaltered release of a program.

Norm
 
so, basically APAR is an advisory report and a PTF is a temp patch?

 
Most people use PTF and APAR interchangably (is that even a word???) PTF's have the word temporary in them but really are not temporary. They are just a patch. Now a temporary patch would be an e-fix that you would get directly from IBM. e-fixes need to be uninstalled before applying maintenance since the ML will not install with an e-fix in place. The terminology is confusing but just think of both PTF's and APAR's as patches. There could be some sort of technical difference between the two but it doesn't matter to us non-IBMers.


Jim Hirschauer
 
My $.02

An APAR is (as stated before) an Authorized Problem Analysis Report - IBM acknowledges that there is some sort of defect in a software program. This report sums up the problem and instructs the software lab to fix it. (IXnnnnn or IYnnnnn number - and not before long I guess IZnnnnn)

A PTF is (again as before) a Program Temporary Fix and provides a solution for a problem. (Unnnnnn number for AIX) I guess the U is for UNIX).

When looking for a fix on the IBM site you can look for an APAR number or the corresponding PTF number, either way, you'll find one or more filesets at one or more version numbers to download and install to fix a defect (and - hopefully not - introduce many more ;-) ).

HTH,

p5wizard
 
Hi,

I can list APARs with instfix -i. Do you know any command to list all the PTFs installed?

thx, john
 
I don't think you can... - that info is not maintained in the ODM database /usr/lib/objrepos/fix.


HTH,

p5wizard
 
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