Re: Cume PTF

Jerry,

The answer is 'usually.' :-) Most of the time only PTFs marked defective and of course the many PTFs that are superseded are pulled but if not in one of these two categories the CUME and the other groups are 'usually' all PTFs since the beginning of the release. The known exception is that at some point in a release's life, IBM may look at the number of disks (images) in a HIPER and say: "Wow, 10 disks eh! And if you're someone staying relatively current you may need only a handful of PTFs from the last disk only!" So they decide they don't really want to print and ship all that plastic or make you download and process all those images. So they set a point in time, normally a CUME, and state in the HIPER that 'You must have previously installed CUME level xxxx or a subsequent CUME before installing this HIPER group." This allows them to remove all the PTFs that were part of the stated CUME, greatly reducing the size of the HIPER. I think this is a good idea frankly.

HOWEVER, if you are a single system shop or even 2 or 3 partitions you may be FAR better off by having Fix Central connect to your system when you order PTFs. Select the option to have IBM deliver only the PTFs from the group (i.e. HIPER) that you do not already have on your system. In this way if you're staying current you may only get a few PTFs and you no longer care what the size of the group is!!

- Larry

Larry,

Doesn't each CUME (and Group) for a release include all of the PTFs since the previous one? That is, one can be at Level 12 for a Group and apply Level 20 (skipping 13-19). I read this years ago, but this discussion led me to want to verify this with an expert. Can you point me to one? .-)

Jerry C. Adams
IBM System i Programmer/Analyst
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