Yum update cron Jobs

[Don Springall]

>From: alan <alan at clueserver.org>
>Reply-To: For testers of Fedora Core development releases 
><fedora-test-list at redhat.com>
>To: For testers of Fedora Core development releases 
><fedora-test-list at redhat.com>
>Subject: Re: Yum update cron Jobs
>Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 09:15:12 -0800 (PST)
>
>On Fri, 10 Feb 2006, Don Springall wrote:
>
> > Is anyone working on improvements to yum so a cron job can be scheduled 
>to
> > update everything and not fail due to dependency errors ? If so what is 
>the
> > time line for this feature ?
>
>"yum -y update" will run in a cron job unattended.
>
>As for dependancies...
>
>That depends on a whole bunch of things out of yum's (or any package
>manager's) control.
>
>If the repositories do not resolve for the set of packages you have
>installed, there will be a problem.  (Especially if you are using test
>versions.)
>
>If you use more than just the standard repositories, you run a risk of
>things not resolving.  (Especially if you have "alternate" versions of
>software installed or add-ons to software in the main repository, or a
>library that is in different repositories under different names.)
>
>For example:
>
>You have package A from main that depends on Library Z version 0.1.1.
>Package B from Fred's repository also depends on that library.  Library Z
>gets updated to 0.1.2.  Package A also gets updated to deal with that
>update.  If package B does not get updated by Fred, Yum will not be able
>to resolve the dependancies.
>
>Also, if someone forgot to rebuild a dependacy in extras, you might see a
>problem.  (Usually only happens in Rawhide, but sometimes people miss
>things.)
>
>Sometimes there are situations that yum should be able to resolve, but
>can't.  If you have an x86_64 install, you can have multiple installs of a
>library with different architectures. If you try to update package A and
>it needs library Z updated, it will only update for the current
>architecture, not for all architectures for which library Z is installed.
>It does not effect a full upgrade, however.
>
> > Does anyone know if SUSE's smart package manager will resolve all 
>dependency
> > problems and run as a cron job ?
>
>It will have the same problems as described above.
>
>Dependancy resolution is not magic.  It cannot be resolved by the package
>manager if the packages are not built correctly or if there are missing
>pieces.
>
>It is like blaming your kid for being unable to complete a jigsaw puzzle
>when the pieces were never included in the box.
>
>If you stick with the standard repositories and a limited number of
>packages, you should not have a problem.  You should always have an option
>to flag someone if there are errors for any automatic software update
>process.
>
>--
>"George W. Bush -- Bringing back the Sixties one Nixon at a time."
>
So you are telling me that there is no one out there that cannot write a 
program to run rpm - q --whatrequires for all those broken dependencies, 
parse that and create a exclude list for yum update ?