Is Arch easy to maintain?

pogeymanz · 2008-04-03 03:05:21

Note that I'm not asking about the INSTALL.

I'm asking if I install Arch to use as my main system; will I be constantly adjusting things, or is the install the only super-time consuming thing?

I ask this because of the News on the front page of Archlinux.org today. About netcfg2 replacing netcfg. I don't know too much about it, as I don't use netcfg, but does that mean that someone using netcfg has to now change all his/her netcfg config files to match the new syntax used by netcfg2?

netcfg v2 has been moved into a different package 'netcfg'. netcfg v2 is feature compatible, but not configuration compatible. Configurations need to be rewritten for netcfg v2, and examples are included in /etc/network.d/examples. For more information on transitioning to netcfg v2, please check the wiki: ...

So, if Arch were my main system, would I have to constantly adapt because of things like this? I actually enjoy setting up my system with Arch, but if I have to change what I'm used to all the time, I would be upset...

grndrush · 2008-04-03 03:15:43

Changes like the one you mention are not the norm, by any means. but as a 'bleeding-edge' distro, yes, you'll see such situations from time to time. IMX, a

pacman -Syu

every few days is not only easy as pie, but keeps you VERY current. You DO want to do this on a regular basis, and NOT from a cron job; you need to *read* the output (which is also recorded in /var/log/pacman.log), and follow pacman's 'suggestions'. MANY of the problems people run into with Arch is going months without updating their system.

FWIW: Most 'pacman -Syu' runs take only a few minutes, sometimes less.

hk2717 · 2008-04-03 03:17:55

Well, I spent one day to configure my xorg/fonts/xinit/Xdefaults/gtk/icon/openbox/pypanel/conky from scratch, and since then I've almost never touched any "tinker" thing. pacman -Syu breaks nothing (except a bug with perl/zim which is not fixed yet, but there is a temporary workaround) in three months. There are something installed as *.pacman.new but I always ignore them, so far no problem. No need to "adapt new things" for me.

grndrush · 2008-04-03 03:20:39

There are something installed as *.pacman.new but I always ignore them

Tick, tick, tick...

BTW: This is EXACTLY what I was referring to when I said you need to read pacman output, and respond accordingly.

Last edited by grndrush (2008-04-03 03:22:17)

Allan · 2008-04-03 03:23:46

hk2717 wrote:

There are something installed as *.pacman.new but I always ignore them, so far no problem.

Look at all the posts about broken manpages from people who didn't deal with /etc/profile.pacnew... There is a lot of them!

Back to the original question, you will need adjust your system from time to time. When a big upgrade occurs, it is often necessary to do some adjustments to configuration files. These are normally announced on the front page so you can look and see how frequent this sort of thing is for yourself. However, most of the time I do nothing apart from read the output when updating.

kezar · 2008-04-03 07:51:39

There are tools to manage .pacsave and .pacnew file by the way
Arch is an admin distro, thus made for lazy people (and that's a good thing).

loosec · 2008-04-03 07:59:35

tools, what tools? sed, awk and diff? or how about vi or nano and two consoles?

finferflu · 2008-04-03 10:50:01

Or one console + vim and diffsplit

schivmeister · 2008-04-03 11:17:59

Yakuake + 2 splits + pacdiff!

Well, back to topic - Arch is dead easy to maintain if you know what you're doing on the dark side. Welcome to the dark side. We got what you need.

Misbah · 2008-04-04 02:01:48

deleted

Last edited by Misbah (2012-02-14 05:33:38)

bender02 · 2008-04-04 03:34:06

Yes, something about .pacnew should be added to be beginner's guide...

schivmeister · 2008-04-04 05:24:03

Done, so continue into the darkness

B-Con · 2008-04-04 07:53:13

Misbah wrote:

Man I didn't know about the pacnew things either until I read the wiki today.. I to have been ignoring them.. time to go find all the *new files and merge them. Jeez.

Behold the beauty of:
$ diff xyz xyz.pacnew
and
$ diff xyz xyz.pacnew -y

Last edited by B-Con (2008-04-04 07:59:28)

whaler · 2008-04-04 12:38:13

Here are some newbie questions:

Pacman was upgraded today and I got a "mirrorlist.pacnew" where all the servers were uncommented and the "#Setup_Entry" and its server were missing...
So I venture to guess that all I need to do is to check if mirrorlist.pacnew lists a server I might want to try?

In my mirrorlist, the server for #Setup_Entry is uncommented. Is this the way it should be after installation?

I wish to install RAR. Serching for "rar" with pacman gives me a long list of libRARies Can somebody tell me which regular expression to use, or which package name I should look for?

Last edited by whaler (2008-04-04 12:38:43)

dyscoria · 2008-04-04 12:52:07

The new mirrorlist is just updating the mirrors that are available. It still works in the same way, with any uncommented mirrors being used starting from the top (so put preferencial mirrors highest).

The rar package is in AUR: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=5872

The unrar package is in the repos: pacman -Sy unrar

whaler · 2008-04-04 12:58:14

Thank you, dyscoria!

Arch Linux

#1 2008-04-03 03:05:21

Is Arch easy to maintain?

#2 2008-04-03 03:15:43

Re: Is Arch easy to maintain?

#3 2008-04-03 03:17:55

Re: Is Arch easy to maintain?

#4 2008-04-03 03:20:39

Re: Is Arch easy to maintain?

#5 2008-04-03 03:23:46

Re: Is Arch easy to maintain?

#6 2008-04-03 07:51:39

Re: Is Arch easy to maintain?

#7 2008-04-03 07:59:35

Re: Is Arch easy to maintain?

#8 2008-04-03 10:50:01

Re: Is Arch easy to maintain?

#9 2008-04-03 11:17:59

Re: Is Arch easy to maintain?

#10 2008-04-04 02:01:48

Re: Is Arch easy to maintain?

#11 2008-04-04 03:34:06

Re: Is Arch easy to maintain?

#12 2008-04-04 05:24:03

Re: Is Arch easy to maintain?

#13 2008-04-04 07:53:13

Re: Is Arch easy to maintain?

#14 2008-04-04 12:38:13

Re: Is Arch easy to maintain?

#15 2008-04-04 12:52:07

Re: Is Arch easy to maintain?

#16 2008-04-04 12:58:14

Re: Is Arch easy to maintain?

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