How do I know when a reboot is required?

[David L Norris]

On Mon, 2004-01-12 at 18:36, Don wrote:
> With MS Windows, it seems a reboot is required after nearly every
> software update.

I think that's largely due to their file locking mechanisms.  (And maybe
further due to way their filesystems creates files.)

> One of the things I like about UNIX/Linux is the overall design of
> things such that reboots are not really part of the "problem
> resolution process".

I wouldn't lump Linux and all UNIX systems together on that point. 
However, rebooting Linux to solve a software problem is likely a waste
of time and possibly even a hindrance.

> But, how do I know what needs to be restarted/rebooted when updates to
> things like cron or glibc are installed? To "be safe" I could always
> reboot the machine after installing updates, but that seems
> unnecessary and certainly unwanted.

Reboot after kernel and glibc updates.  For glibc it is easier to reboot
than manually restart every program on the system.  And init needs
restart to use the new glibc.

A RPM from Red Hat for a service like cron should restart the service
for you when it is upgraded.  Third party RPMs may not be so kind.

-- 
 David Norris
  http://www.webaugur.com/dave/
  ICQ - 412039
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
URL: <http://listman.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/attachments/20040112/5d67f235/attachment-0001.sig>