14.9.3.1 Public patches

Public patches are general patches made available to all LispWorks customers. These are typically released in bundles of multiple different patch files; each file has a number as its name. For example,

patches\system\0001\0001.ofasl (for x86 Windows)

patches/system/0001/0001.ufasl (for x86 Linux)

patches/system/0001/0001.sfasl (for x86 Solaris)

patches/system/0001/0001.ffasl (for x86 FreeBSD)

patches/system/0001/0001.ifasl (for AIX 32-bit)

patches/system\0001\0001.64ofasl (for x64 Windows)

patches/system/0001/0001.64ufasl (for amd64 Linux)

patches/system/0001/0001.64sfasl (for amd64 Solaris)

patches/system/0001/0001.64ffasl (for amd64 FreeBSD)

patches/system/0001/0001.64ifasl (for AIX 64-bit)

patches/system/0001/0001.wfasl (for SPARC 32-bit)

patches/system/0001/0001.64wfasl (for SPARC 64 bit)

On receipt of a new patch bundle your system manager should update each local installation according to the installation instructions supplied with the patch bundle. This will add files to the patches subdirectory and increment the version number displayed by LispWorks.

You should consider saving a new image with the latest patches pre-loaded, as described in Saving and testing the configured image (Mac OS X), Saving and testing the configured image (Windows) or Saving and testing the configured image (Linux, x86/x64 Solaris or FreeBSD), or Saving and testing the configured image (other UNIX).

14.9.3.2 Private patches

LispWorks patches are generally released in cumulative bundles. Occasionally Lisp Support may send you individual patch binaries named for example my-patch to address a problem or implement a new feature in advance of bundled ('public') patch releases. Such patches have real names, rather than numbers, and must be loaded once they have been saved to disk. You will need to ensure that LispWorks will load your private patches on startup, after public patches have been loaded.

Private patch loading is controlled by the file:

lib/7-0-0-0/private-patches/load.lisp

private-patches/ is the default location for private patches, and patch loading instructions sent to you will assume this location. Therefore, on receipt of a private patch my-patch.ufasl, the simplest approach is to place it here. For example, on Mac OS X:

<install>/LispWorks 7.0/Library/lib/7-0-0-0/private-patches/my-patch.xfasl

On Windows (but see note below about the Install Private Patches... command):

<install>\lib\7-0-0-0\private-patches\my-patch.ofasl

On Linux:

<install>/lib/7-0-0-0/private-patches/my-patch.ufasl

On SPARC:

<install>
/lib/7-0-0-0/private-patches/my-patch.64wfasl (for 64-bit LispWorks)

<install>
/lib/7-0-0-0/private-patches/my-patch.wfasl (for 32-bit LispWorks)

You will receive a Lisp form needed to load such a patch, such as

(LOAD-ONE-PRIVATE-PATCH "my-patch" :SYSTEM)

This form should be added to the flet form in the file:

private-patches/load.lisp

as in the commented example there. load-all-patches loads this file, and hence all the private patches listed therein.

You may choose to save a reconfigured image with the new patch loaded - for details see the instructions in Saving and testing the configured image (Mac OS X), Saving and testing the configured image (Windows), Saving and testing the configured image (Linux, x86/x64 Solaris or FreeBSD), or Saving and testing the configured image (other UNIX). You can alternatively choose to load the patch file on startup. The option you choose will depend on how many people at your site will need access to the new patch, and how many will need access to an image without the patch loaded.

Note: On Windows, the correct way to install private patches is using the menu item Help > Install Private Patches... . Select the private patch file with the Add button and edit the private-patches/load.lisp in the lower pane to include the loading form supplied by Lisp Support. Then click Save Changes , which will run a helper application that interacts with the Windows User Access Control mechanism to allow you to write the files into the protected Program Files folder.