Through the pca news page I found out some impending changes to access to Solaris patches. There are two changes:

• InfoDoc #83061 says that from mid-July, we'll need to register for a free Sun Online Account in order to get patches.
• InfoDoc #82023 says that Sun will be turning off anonymous ftp access to patches in late August.

I'm honestly not sure how these two interact, since it's hard to enforce having accounts with anonymous ftp.

However, pca currently retrieves patches (and the patchdiag.xref index file) via http, not anonymous ftp, so it will be affected sooner. (I'm not sure if it'll require a pca update, or if you'll just be able to plug in a Sun Online Account ID and password as if it was a SunSolve one.)

Moral: I should get registered soon and start experimentation, no matter how annoying it's sure to be.

It's somewhat ironic that I just finished writing up what I've worked out about the patchdiag.xref format so I can start using it for nefarious purposes.