Pacman idea - minor updates (eg fixes) + roll back ensurance

N1ckR · 2007-06-21 17:18:47

Something I was pondering over.

Ability to set pacman to only update packages with fixes (eg minor versions), eg 1.1.0 to 1.1.9999, but not 1.1.999999 to 1.2.0 of a package.

This would be useful for people who have a stable system (temporarily or permanently)

I have no clue if pacman would be able to keep track of such an feature and if it would be possible to manage.

Also, I think it would be useful to keep a certain amount of old versions of packages in repos so that if an update to a package is bad there is a quick and easy fall back.

Cheers, Nick

dtw · 2007-06-21 18:33:19

The minor update thing is a great idea in theory...but it'd be even better if we could assume a minimum level of intelligence regarding release cycles amongst software developers because some of them have serious difficulty with the concept of a minor point release.

For example, I maintain the qgis package. They just release 0.8.1, a bug fix release for 0.8. Cool, eh? Except that they completely changed the way the software was built between these two releases. That's not the greatest example, but it does show that some major changes can creep into what should be a minor release.

While such cases wouldn't have had a negative impact on the implementation of your idea, it would have an impact on the expected results...i.e. a more stable system.

Most importantly though, you have to consider is that not everyone uses the x.y.z versioning system. Udev is a good example, I dunno what the basis of theirs is but it seems to be an n=n+1 type affair. So sadly pacman couldn't account for all such variations. Shame.

/me shakes fist at the lack of homogeneity in the OSS community

N1ckR · 2007-06-21 22:39:44

Maybe we could let the packager record how different the package is to the previous version(s).

What is the current mechanism for rolling back to an old version of a package ?

N1ckR · 2007-06-21 22:50:49

Even simpler, idea... backup before upgrade into a tarball (have a backup directory that sits next to the pacman cache folder), then a rollback option which just copies the working backup.

I'm pretty sure that could be easily scripted (im not very clued up on scripting).

Last edited by N1ckR (2007-06-21 22:53:57)

N1ckR · 2007-06-22 09:29:06

I have just check my cache and it is storing older versions of packages - maybe we could utilise this.

shining · 2007-06-22 09:47:50

Yes all packages downloaded are kept in the cache. Though it seems that maybe people delete it using pacman -Sc (remove all versions except the latest) or -Scc (remove everything), because they need the space I guess.
Personally, I do it very rarely, so I'm always able to downgrade temporarily a package when it's broken.
So I would suggest not cleaning the cache, unless absolutely needed.

Otherwise, phrakture also made a mirror, see :
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Downgrade_packages

Arch Linux

#1 2007-06-21 17:18:47

Pacman idea - minor updates (eg fixes) + roll back ensurance

#2 2007-06-21 18:33:19

Re: Pacman idea - minor updates (eg fixes) + roll back ensurance

#3 2007-06-21 22:39:44

Re: Pacman idea - minor updates (eg fixes) + roll back ensurance

#4 2007-06-21 22:50:49

Re: Pacman idea - minor updates (eg fixes) + roll back ensurance

#5 2007-06-22 09:29:06

Re: Pacman idea - minor updates (eg fixes) + roll back ensurance

#6 2007-06-22 09:47:50

Re: Pacman idea - minor updates (eg fixes) + roll back ensurance

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