Arch Linux

soslack

Member

Registered: 2013-11-19

Posts: 4

Getting only critical updates

Hey,
I get error occasionally when trying to install package (don't remember exact error) but error is resolved with 'pacman -Syy' (sync repos).
Unfortunately almost daily updates to packages which work perfectly isn't my thing and resolving problems with updated packages isn't also my thing (I know I can switch back to old package easily since they are in cache, but still unnecessary problem(s) ) -- I just want to ignore those unnecessary updates.
How I've resolved this problem so far is by issuing 'pacman -Syy' -- syncing repos but not updating. But my concern is that I read in wiki that syncing repos without updating is bad (not sure why) and also I actually want to get security updates as fast as possible.

I'm running now 3.10.25-1-lts.

Pretty sure I have misunderstood something but have so much new after switching from Slackware and can't keep up.

Allan

Pacman

From: Brisbane, AU

Registered: 2007-06-09

Posts: 11,399

Website

Re: Getting only critical updates

Updates in Arch are all or nothing.  That is part of how we run the rolling release system.

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karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: Getting only critical updates

When you get the error next time, post it here.

mariusmeyer

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2009-04-25

Posts: 244

Re: Getting only critical updates

-Syy is bad because, when you only update the database but not the packages, new packages you install will not have updated dependencies/libraries, and things break.

But let me tell you my story. I use Arch for my home desktop, and do some science work on it, but otherwise browsing, mail etc. I do pacman -Syu almost every day, and not once during four years have I had A SINGLE BREAKAGE because of an update. The reason is very simply that the fewer updates that are needed at once, the easier it is to pinpoint what went wrong if something does, it is easier to pay attention to pacman's output (because it is shorter) and if there are warnings/replacements the news about it will certainly be either on the news page or somewhere in the active part of the forums.

If you use your Arch PC for something exotic, of course this may not be a good plan; but then again, why use Arch? I would advise you to update everything often, never do -Sy or -Syy, and pay attention to the news page

fsckd

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-06-15

Posts: 4,173

Re: Getting only critical updates

This needs to be linked to every now and then: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 61#p802661

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Sternmull

Member

Registered: 2009-09-22

Posts: 22

Re: Getting only critical updates

Without being asked I will tell you my story: This week I changed from Debian Wheezy (used it from its beta to today, so around a year) back to Arch. It sounds that you want what Debian does: Only install bugfix-updates, dont updated to new versions if they are not absolutely required to fix security problems.
Before I switched to Debian I was an Arch user for some years. But I got unhappy because editing configs to get a sane setup and searching the Arch-Wiki for every tiny bit of required information to maintain my system felt wrong. Also I felt (just as you) that a rolling release model does not fit my needs for a stable system (I had a bad experience when updating Arch on a notebook that was unused for months... updating from that old state to the new one was more work than reinstalling the system).
Now, after using Debian exclusively for a while, I got to the point that I got unhappy about all the outdated software (I am a software developer, and it sucks if you have to choose between using debians outdated tools/libs or compiling every things including its dependency manually or just develop against outdated libs). Also I noticed that the update model of Debian does not guaranty a system without any problems: After installing it I had to compile a newer kernel on may own for a few weeks to get rid of a bug with my (then) new CPU, even after a year VLC still crashes every second time when I launch it for a folder, LXC templates where broken... The essence: Some things will not get fixed when you only accept critical updates.

Now I am back to Arch. This time installed inside a BTRFS subvolume that makes it easy to create snapshots and to roll back if an updated breaks something. In this case I will just restore the latest snapshot and wait until the problems are fixed before I retry the update. Not that I expect any problems: After all that time using Arch the only serious problem was that with the notebook that was not updated for months. But it feels good to know that I can always get back a working system if an update causes problems. This way I can enjoy the latest software versions without risking to loose my production environment (yes, it can break, but I can restore it within a minute).

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 11,587

Re: Getting only critical updates

Unfortunately almost daily updates to packages which work perfectly isn't my thing ...

I stopped reading here. Why in the world would you choose Arch then?