up2date

[Ben Steeves]

On Sun, 2004-03-14 at 14:10, Pierre De Boeck wrote:
> Ok thanks a lot.
> 
> But still a few questions about update in general because I am a
> little confused.
> 
> I know at least rpm, yum and up2date for updating packages and now
> there is yet another one:up2date-nox.

I think Alexander made a typo there... it should be "up2date --nox",
which means run up2date without opening a GUI window.

> rpm I think is used only if you have already downloaded the rpm files
> and yum and up2date perform the download and optionally the updates 
> (using rpm I suppose). Am I right up to this point?

RPM (the RPM Package Manager) is the underlying archive format used by
up2date and yum.  Up2date and Yum are dependency managers -- so for
example when package A depends on packages B & C, and you have B but not
C, Yum or Up2date will automatically fetch and install C before A, so as
to satisfy dependencies.  

> Now my questions:
> 
> - can I mix updates with yum and up2date. And are the rpms updated
> by yum visible with rpm -q?

Yes -- they all go into the master RPM database.  It's advisable to
point both yum (via /etc/yum.conf) and up2date (via
/etc/sysconfig/rhn/sources) to the same repositories.  

> - why to use up2date-nox io up2date?

As I explained above, you use up2date --nox when you want to run from a
command line with no GUI.

> - are the default options in the up2date config file ok for doing a
> complete update, including kernel? I have a fresh FC1 2.4.22-1.2115
> and I want the latest updates (2174) with kernel-source.

up2date is configured by default to ignore packages starting with the
word "kernel", ie., kernel and kernel-source upgrades.  That's why
Alexander's advice was to use up2date -i --force kernel kernel-source
for kernel packages... you don't want to update your kernel, but rather
install the new one with the old one still in place.  This allows you to
roll back to the old kernel in case of problems.  The --force option
over-rides the ignore setting in your up2date configuration.


-- 
Ben Steeves                     _                    bcs at metacon.ca
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