Redhat Updates: Best Strategy?

[mbrodeur at NextTime.com (Matthew J. Brodeur)]

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On Fri, 7 Dec 2001, Kent Borg wrote:

> First, to make the downloading easier, I finally decided to use wget
> to just collect everything I don't already have:
> 
>   wget -N ftp://anonymous:kentborg.borg.org at updates.redhat.com/7.0/en/os/i386/*

   Cool.  I use "mirror" to accomplish the same thing.


> Second, I need to install them.  ...  What will happen if I simply do
> the following?
> 
>   rpm -Fvh *.rpm

   This will often do something unexpected, like actually working.


> I imagine that dependencies will get upset for things that don't fall
> in ASCII order, so I imagine I would need to do that rpm command
> several times until I quit getting complaints.  I also know that this

   Dependencies should be resolved provided the necessary packages are 
there AND have previously been installed.  Remember that 'Freshen' won't 
update a package not already installed, even if it's now required.
   Example:  About two weeks after the release of RH7.2, ghostscript
became dependent on Omni and Omni-foomatic (not part of the original
release).  Therefore a "rpm -F *.rpm"  will fail due to Omni, etc. not
being installed.  Running:
"rpm -Uvh Omni-[whatever] Omni-foomatic-[whatever]"
first will fix the problem.


> won't compile and install a new kernel or anything like that (however
> I think I will try 2.4.10-ac12 on my server, I like it on my
> notebook).

   Since RPM 4.x(?) it _IS_ safe to install Red Hat update kernels via the 
- -F or -U flags.  In 7.2 it will remove your old kernel, install the new 
one, build the initrd (or maybe it's included in the RPM), and reconfigure 
GRUB.  I still prefer to build my own kernel in addition to the RH 
supplied one, since RH is still on 2.4.9 and I like 2.4.16.  
   The command I would use to update a 7.2 system, given a complete
updates mirror, is:
[7.2/en/os/i386]# rpm -Fvh `ls *.rpm | egrep -v \
 '(^kernel-2.4.9|^glibc-2.2.4)'` ../i686/kernel-2.4.9-13.i686.rpm \
../i686/glibc-2.2.4-19.i686.rpm ../noarch/*.rpm

   That's a lot to type, and I'm sure there's a better way, but it works.

   Watch out for multiple versions of the same package in the updates, 
though.  That will always break something.  ATM, there are three versions 
of the openssh packages in the 7.2 tree, so you'll have to delete or grep 
out all except the latest ones.


- -- 
     -Matt

The problem with capitalism is capitalists.
        -Winston Churchill
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