Hesiod cluster entries are of the form: variable value version flags where the version and flags may be omitted. If a version is present, the entry is discarded if: * AUTOUPDATE is false and the version does not match the workstation version, or * AUTOUPDATE is true, the version does not match the workstation version, and flags contains 't'. After discarding any such entries, the entry with the highest version number is used to set the variable. An entry with no version is used if all versioned entries for that variable were discarded, or if there were no versioned entries for that variable. If a versioned entry is discarded which did not have the 't' flag set, the environment variable NEW_PRODUCTION_RELEASE is set to the highest such version in the resulting cluster information. If a versioned entry is discarded which did have the 't' flag set, the environment variable NEW_TESTING_RELEASE is set to the highest such version in the resulting cluster information. During the testing of a release, we have cluster information which looks like: syslib old-system-packs 7.7 syslib new-system-packs 8.0 t 7.7 machines will stay with the old system packs, regardless of whether AUTOUPDATE is set. However, the environment variable NEW_TESTING_RELEASE will be set to 8.0, which will result in a console message. After a new release, we have cluster information which looks like: syslib old-system-packs 7.7 syslib new-system-packs 8.0 If a 7.7 machine has AUTOUPDATE true, it will automatically get the new syslib entry (and subsequently take the update to 8.0). If a 7.7 machine has AUTOUPDATE false, it will stay with the old system packs. However, the environment variable NEW_PRODUCTION_RELEASE will be set to 8.0, which will result in a console message. Here's a matrix for resolution of versioned entries: Matches No match, No match, ws version 't' flag set no 't' flag ---------- ------------ ----------- AUTOUPDATE true consider discard consider AUTOUPDATE false consider discard discard And the versioned entry chosen is the one with the highest version wasn't discarded.