Hot fixes are always cumulative
The one thing I learnt when I was at the MVP summit a
few weeks ago was that hotfixes are always cumulative, in other words you get
all the other hotfixes that have been made prior to your hot fix.
The reason for this is that there is one SQL Server code branch that is used
for releasing code. The code changes for the hotfix are applied to the branch
and the hotfix package is then built.
You may have noticed that the GDR (General Distribution Release in between a
hotfix and an SP) for the Maintenance plan cleanup bug made changes to all
sorts of areas including RS, AS not just the tools. This is because the GDR is
just a hotfix that is made public.
Tony has blogged about the time it takes to apply the latest SQL Hotfix SQL
2005 SP2 hot fix from windows update takes over 10 minutes to run! This
is probably because the cut off for SP2 was quite a while ago and so hotfixes
have been piling up so the hot fix actuall contains lots of previous
hotfixes.
Be warned. Make sure you have a well structured testing process for applying
hotfixes as well as service packs
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