Redhat ES Patches

[Rick Stevens]

Waldher, Travis R wrote:
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Rick Stevens [mailto:rstevens at vitalstream.com] 
>>Sent: Friday, May 14, 2004 12:24 PM
>>To: Getting started with Red Hat Linux
>>Subject: Re: Redhat ES Patches
>>
>>
>>Waldher, Travis R wrote:
>>
>>>Ok, I've got an ES machine here at work.  I can't have it 
>>
>>contacting 
>>
>>>Redhats up2date server.  I want the patches, but I can't 
>>
>>easily just 
>>
>>>download all the latest updates, regardless of wether my 
>>
>>system needs 
>>
>>>them or not, so I can have my own distribution point of sorts.
>>>
>>>Anyone have an easier way to get past this, rather than 
>>
>>individually 
>>
>>>download all 1100+ packages and sift through them finding the ones 
>>>that are newer than the source media?  I mean.. having to 
>>
>>individually 
>>
>>>select each of those 1100+ packages for download is going to suck.
>>
>>I hate to break it to you, but the only free updates 
>>available for ES, AS, PW or EL are source RPMs.  If you want 
>>binary updates, you must sign up for an update "entitlement" 
>>and get them from Red Hat's site via up2date.
>>
>>This is one of the reasons so many people flocked to Fedora Core.
>>
>>Sorry.
> 
> 
> I do have the entitlement.  So, I can get to the binaries.  The problem
> is, if I don't use up2date, it seems I have to manually download each
> patch and try to figure out which ones are newer.  A real pain, and
> Redhat support laughed at me when I said, surely, there must be another
> way.  :/

Yes, you must use up2date.  However, you can set up an "ignore" list
of RPMs you _don't_ want automatically installed.  Use "up2date
--config" to set that up.

up2date does a reasonable job of sorting out what's "newer" than what
you have--but only for things installed via rpm.  If you do a tarball
install, up2date (because it queries the rpm database) will have no idea
that you installed, say, PostgreSQL 7.4.2 (the latest) via tarball,
while the latest RPM is 7.3.6.  So, when they finally come out with a
7.3.7 rpm, it'll get installed and might stomp on your 7.4.2 version.
That's one of the problems with multiple distribution formats.

"You pays your money...you takes your chances!"
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-  Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a  -
-                              rigged demo.                          -
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