Arch Linux

lemon

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2006-11-11

Posts: 50

Stable upgrades

Okey, here's the problem: An irritation I have had with archlinux, in fact the only real one, is that some part of the system crashes when I upgrade. Often it's some new version of a library that doesnt work with an older version, or a new bug is introduced. So what I'm asking is, can I upgrade my applications, but leave libraries and system files alone? I only want to upgrade the core files when a new release of archlinux is out so that I know they are stable.

dolby

Member

From: 1992

Registered: 2006-08-08

Posts: 1,581

Re: Stable upgrades

You can maintain all packages you want yourself. Other than that no there isnt.

Last edited by dolby (2008-05-20 14:15:06)

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There shouldn't be any reason to learn more editor types than emacs or vi -- mg (1)
[You learn that sarcasm does not often work well in international forums.  That is why we avoid it. -- ewaller (arch linux forum moderator)

bender02

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,328

Re: Stable upgrades

Archlinux "releases" (should) come out with the new kernel version hitting core, and what gets included on the CD is just a snapshot of packages at that time. While devs try to get them "stable" a bit more than usual, releases do not guarantee stability (in a sense that you probably imagine).

lemon

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2006-11-11

Posts: 50

Re: Stable upgrades

Okey, I wish there could be like a "release package" that contains a stable version of the core files.

bender02

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,328

Re: Stable upgrades

Here you go: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=41764

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,604

Re: Stable upgrades

Often it's some new version of a library that doesnt work with an older version, or a new bug is introduced.

Do you report these problems when they occur?

lemon

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2006-11-11

Posts: 50

Re: Stable upgrades

Okey I see that this is a complex issue, so I will ask for something else: How can I "reset" my system after a full system upgrade, so if something brakes I can downgrade all the packages that where upgraded in that last system upgrade.

bender02

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,328

Re: Stable upgrades

Here's a way: take a look at /var/log/pacman.log to see what was upgraded on the last upgrade; use old package tarballs from pacman cache (default location /var/cache/pacman/pkg/*) to downgrade (via 'pacman -U <tarball>).

If this seems like too much work, write a script that automates this process, and then post it here on the forums to 'Community contributions'

bender02

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,328

Re: Stable upgrades

Well, I had nothing to do, so here you go (name this short script 'findlastupdated.sh')

#!/bin/bash
tac /var/log/pacman.log | sed -n '0,/starting full system upgrade/s|^\[.* upgraded \(.*\) (\(.*\) -> .*)|/var/cache/pacman/pkg/\1-\2-x86_64.pkg.tar.gz|p'

That should print packages updated since last 'full system upgrade' with the full path (you need to change x86_64 to i686 if you use that architecture). If you want pacman to install all of those printed, just use

findlastupdated.sh | xargs pacman -U

EDIT: deleted one unnecessary sed call from the script

Last edited by bender02 (2008-05-21 18:21:12)

lemon

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2006-11-11

Posts: 50

Re: Stable upgrades

bender02: nice work! that's what I've been missing. In my opinion this should be implemented in pacman, so that if your system crashes after a upgrade you can easily revert back to a working setup.