Summary
Question
Starting with Server Automation (SA) versions 10.50 and above, a utility called "win_purge_unused_superseded_patches.pyc" was provided by SA rollups and will be found in the directory /opt/opsware/mm_wordbot/util on SA cores. Running this utility with the "-li" option seems to provide incorrect information as patches listed in the utilities output can be found in existing SA patch policies (when reviewing these policies in the SA java gui).
Why?
Answer
This tool does not have a man page that accompanies it. Running the command with the "-h" option will show the following..
# /opt/opsware/bin/python /opt/opsware/mm_wordbot/util/win_purge_unused_superseded_patches.pyc -h
Therefore, using the command with the "-li" option is showing what was intended.. superseded patches present in the SA database that are being actively used by SA patch policies. To see a list of the unused superseded patches in the SA database, use the "-l" option instead.
Note: In addition to patch policies, other aspects of SA will be searched for the existence of these superseded patches. This includes patch policy exceptions and any patches that have been registered as having been installed via HPSA.