Arch Linux

Hrod beraht

Member

Registered: 2008-09-30

Posts: 186

Where to find upgrade details?

Maybe I'm missing something simple, but when you do a pacman -Syu and it syncs the databases and tells you that package X version 1.2.3 is available as an update, is there an easy way to find out exactly what that update entails? That is, is it a security update, bug fix, or what?

Thanks for any info,
Bob

patroclo7

Member

From: Bassano del Grappa, ITALY

Registered: 2006-01-11

Posts: 915

Re: Where to find upgrade details?

Since archlinux is expected to be globally and constantly updated (not only for security updates and bug fixes, but also for new upstream versions), there is no strong reason to look for this information in the pacman output. But obviously you can look for the svn log in the web interface: there any change is motivated. Or for the changelogs which you find - for some packages - in the abs tree.
Many times you can guess from the version scheme: when the pkgver changes, it is a new upstream version (which obviously includes the upstream fixes for bugs and security risks); when on the contrary pkgrel changes, then something related to the packaging in arch is changed. My suggestion is NOT to deduce from this difference a priority list: just upgrade always everything simultaneously.

Last edited by patroclo7 (2008-10-21 17:55:22)

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Hrod beraht

Member

Registered: 2008-09-30

Posts: 186

Re: Where to find upgrade details?

Thanks Patroclo, that was an excellent response and fully answered my question

Bob