Arch Linux

silentbob476

Member

From: Hungary

Registered: 2025-06-01

Posts: 3

Arch Linux update frequency [SOLVED]

As an Arch Linux user for a few years now, I've been asking myself the following question.
I've been updating every month so far, which seems like a good balance between the risk of frequent updates and the incompatibility caused by a large version difference due to too infrequent updates.
Does anyone have any experience with how the system reacts if I update every 3 months?

Last edited by silentbob476 (2025-06-01 15:22:09)

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 74,325

Re: Arch Linux update frequency [SOLVED]

The longer you wait, the more likely you might hit procedural issues and may be forced to do incremental updates using the ALA.
The main issue you'll run into are outdated keys (the pacman wiki addresses this, basically pre-update the keyring) and eg. when the package format changes a MUCH older pacman might not be able to extract the new format.
You absolutely can update systems after several years, but it's not necessarily fun.

good balance between the risk of frequent updates and the incompatibility caused by a large version difference

1. Only update when you know you'll have some time to deal w/ any kind of issue falling out of it
2. Have a rescue medium or a second kernel (which you can manually update in a tic-toc approach, never both kernels at the same time)
3. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_L … cific_date

---

How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

LinuxLover471

Member

From: Asia, India

Registered: 2025-02-23

Posts: 172

Re: Arch Linux update frequency [SOLVED]

Also, in case you break something, you can create backups with Rsync and Timeshift
I recommend two options because timeshift segfaults when I try to restore with CLI.

---

--- asyync1024

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,694

Re: Arch Linux update frequency [SOLVED]

In an extreme example, we had a situation a long time ago where there were 2 mutually exclusive manual interventions 6 months apart. If you hadn't updated in that 6 months, it was virtually impossible to update from within the system. Waiting just creates more and more problems.

silentbob476

Member

From: Hungary

Registered: 2025-06-01

Posts: 3

Re: Arch Linux update frequency [SOLVED]

Thanks, all of you guys!
Should I mark it as solved?

sjostrand

Member

Registered: 2022-08-07

Posts: 26

Re: Arch Linux update frequency [SOLVED]

The easy way is to put it on auto notification of updates and then is up to you to do the update or not.

I always do updates before i close down the computer, minimum once a week (sundays for me).