How much time counts as "too long" before running pacman -Syu?

Skeleton2323 · 2024-10-11 21:25:27

I'm mainly asking since I have a desktop computer powered off in a remote location with Arch that I access periodically, from every few months to more than half a year.
Anything that may not perform smoothly after, let's say, 1 year later without upgrading?

seth · 2024-10-11 22:24:02

It's too long when you run into problems you can't solve.

Most of the time it's gonna be somehow keyring related and pre-updating archlinux-keyring will do.
Massive issues will arise when glibc sees an ABI incompatible update or eg. pacman swicthes the compression standard (I think the zstd move had a 6 months preparation phase?)
In doubt you can abuse the ALA for incremental updates.

The inevitable nastyness is that you'll have to do all pacnew merges at once.
You could also opt for some LTS distro (eg. debian LTS)

The oldest system I've updated was 4-5 years behind.
Not smooth, not even pretty - but possible.

WorMzy · 2024-10-11 22:46:55

Check the news, see what manual intervention has been required since your last update. Possibly make use of the Arch Linux Archive snapshots to update your system in stages (note: full system upgrades to points in time, not partial).

The fewer unsupported (AUR) packages you have, the easier the process of getting up-to-date is likely to be, especially avoid replacing any "base" packages with unsupported equivalents (i.e. systemd-git).

fozid · 2024-10-22 07:44:59

As long as your packages are stable, as in you are not upgrading, installing or removing any packages, then your machine will remain in the exact same state every boot. So you will never run into any problems unless you specifically cause them.

You will only run into problems if you try to install or upgrade a single or small number of packages.

I have a laptop has not had an update in over a year, and I only boot into arch every few months. No issues.

seth · 2024-10-22 10:39:58

The problem is that you'll increasingly run into problems when finally updating the system (and of course you're accumulating CVEs during the time where you're not updating which is maybe not so much an issue if you're only infrequently using the system, maybe for testing purposes)

Arch Linux

#1 2024-10-11 21:25:27

How much time counts as "too long" before running pacman -Syu?

#2 2024-10-11 22:24:02

Re: How much time counts as "too long" before running pacman -Syu?

#3 2024-10-11 22:46:55

Re: How much time counts as "too long" before running pacman -Syu?

#4 2024-10-22 07:44:59

Re: How much time counts as "too long" before running pacman -Syu?

#5 2024-10-22 10:39:58

Re: How much time counts as "too long" before running pacman -Syu?

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