Pacman undo update feature request/repo of old packages

ravisghosh · 2009-02-27 11:05:00

At times, after an upgrade, we end up with a mess and lot of things not working. And often, right at that time, we need our comp to be in perfectly working condition and have no time to figure out what has gone wrong and fix it. I believe a feature in pacman which would simply undo last update will be something very desirable. I not very sure if similar feature exists or not.

Secondly, when something breaks and the old version of the package is not available in the hard disk, then again there is lot of headache especially to those who are not very comfortable with building packages with abs. A repo of old packages, at least 1 version older than the current one, can come handy in such situations. So, if latest package is not working, one can get the old version from this particular repo.

filo · 2009-02-27 11:35:34

Fully agree. In my opinion it's a great idea.

rson451 · 2009-02-27 11:40:07

Please search and find previous discussions on this matter. Feel free to get a fat pipe and throw a custom 'rollback' repo up for the community to use. Otherwise, you are using a rolling release distribution so you need to read and research before updating and/or not clean your pacman cache so often.

Last edited by rson451 (2009-02-27 11:43:13)

wonder · 2009-02-27 11:40:41

this thing was raise multiple times. in my opinion this violates the principle in which archlinux is based.

DonVla · 2009-02-27 12:32:33

ravisghosh wrote:

At times, after an upgrade, we end up with a mess and lot of things not working. And often, right at that time, we need our comp to be in perfectly working condition and have no time to figure out what has gone wrong and fix it. I believe a feature in pacman which would simply undo last update will be something very desirable. I not very sure if similar feature exists or not.
Secondly, when something breaks and the old version of the package is not available in the hard disk, then again there is lot of headache especially to those who are not very comfortable with building packages with abs. A repo of old packages, at least 1 version older than the current one, can come handy in such situations. So, if latest package is not working, one can get the old version from this particular repo.

there are many mirrors which do not directly delete old packages (at least one version - some even older). you have to search them for yourself.
or setup an own local repo with packages which are known to cause trouble.
i use my own app pkgman (see sig) to keep track of such packages and move them to local repository or at least make a backup of these. so i backup crucial packages (like kernel, video drivers) before cleaning up pacman's cache (which isn't recommended anyway).
that's the curse and blessing of rolling distros - there is no general going back to an earlier version. and it is not intended.
it's up to you how you do it.

vlad

tomk · 2009-02-27 13:21:11

IMO, the effort and time required to implement these features would be better spent learning how to avoid this:

ravisghosh wrote:

At times, after an upgrade, we end up with a mess and lot of things not working.

I have never found a "lot of things not working" after an upgrade, and I attribute my good fortune to the time I have spent getting to know how Arch really works. On occasion, I have found one or two things not working, but invariably it's because I have, for some reason, not applied that knowledge before hitting the -Syu button.

This sticky is the place to start - an excellent summary by Misfit138. As always, more detail is available in the wiki.

Having said all that, please feel free to pursue this idea. You could submit a rollback patch for pacman, set up a rollback repo, as suggested above, etc. Don't pin your hopes on getting any of these ideas accepted officially by the Arch team - as someone already said, they are not really compatible with the overall Arch approach.

Inxsible · 2009-02-27 14:27:52

wonder wrote:

this thing was raise multiple times. in my opinion this violates the principle in which archlinux is based.

+ 1

The reason pacman gives you the information is for you to read. You are not supposed to hit Y just because there is an update. Read the arch home page and news feeds for possible errors that others have encountered before updating.

I had to clean pacman cache once -- when it got full -- but that was because I gave it only 1.5 GB. So I increased it to 5GB. Keep your /var big enough and you won't even have that problem again.

Last edited by Inxsible (2009-02-27 14:29:44)

brisbin33 · 2009-02-27 16:19:40

you can always go here for an archive of the repos going back to 10/08. best site ever.

Mr.Elendig · 2009-02-27 17:36:30

ravisghosh wrote:

At times, after an upgrade, we end up with a mess and lot of things not working. And often, right at that time, we need our comp to be in perfectly working condition and have no time to figure out what has gone wrong and fix it. I believe a feature in pacman which would simply undo last update will be something very desirable. I not very sure if similar feature exists or not.
Secondly, when something breaks and the old version of the package is not available in the hard disk, then again there is lot of headache especially to those who are not very comfortable with building packages with abs. A repo of old packages, at least 1 version older than the current one, can come handy in such situations. So, if latest package is not working, one can get the old version from this particular repo.

There is a really easy solution to this:

Don't -Sc until you know the update is good. If you do that, then you will have the older version of the package on disc, ready to roll back if you get any problems.

shining · 2009-02-27 19:01:08

Mr.Elendig wrote:

Don't -Sc until you know the update is good. If you do that, then you will have the older version of the package on disc, ready to roll back if you get any problems.

This is so obvious, how come there are so many users who cannot understand that?
I became bored after repeating it one hundred times.

Mr.Elendig · 2009-02-27 19:32:23

master%20of%20the%20obvious.jpg

tung · 2009-02-28 02:32:58

I have an Eee PC, so space is at a premium: I just don't have the room to keep a package cache.

Thanks to the guy that posted that link to the package archives. For those who say that you should check first and it's your fault if it screw it up, frankly I am stunned by the attitude. Yes, people should be checking before upgrading. Yes, they should keep up with the distro news. And yes, they will sometimes screw it up.

People aren't perfect, sure, but they shouldn't be punished for that.

shining · 2009-02-28 07:37:48

tung wrote:

I have an Eee PC, so space is at a premium: I just don't have the room to keep a package cache.

You don't have to keep it on the eee pc itself, you can keep it anywhere, just like any other data. Any other pc you have, any external drives, any web space you might have.
In case you can store it on another pc on your network, you can even access and store to the network share directly :
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Net … cman_Cache

tomk · 2009-02-28 10:29:31

tung wrote:

For those who say that you should check first and it's your fault if it screw it up, frankly I am stunned by the attitude. Yes, people should be checking before upgrading. Yes, they should keep up with the distro news. And yes, they will sometimes screw it up.
People aren't perfect, sure, but they shouldn't be punished for that.

Nobody's being punished - unless you regard fixing avoidable errors as punishment. As already stated, the OP and/or anyone else is free to create any kind of rollback mechanism they like. The "check before you upgrade" principle is a vital element in the overall smooth running of an Arch system, so it's not unreasonable that people would reinforce that message when responding to a request that seems to ignore it.

GGLucas · 2009-02-28 13:03:00

.

Last edited by GGLucas (2022-06-24 08:16:21)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-02-27 11:05:00

Pacman undo update feature request/repo of old packages

#2 2009-02-27 11:35:34

Re: Pacman undo update feature request/repo of old packages

#3 2009-02-27 11:40:07

Re: Pacman undo update feature request/repo of old packages

#4 2009-02-27 11:40:41

Re: Pacman undo update feature request/repo of old packages

#5 2009-02-27 12:32:33

Re: Pacman undo update feature request/repo of old packages

#6 2009-02-27 13:21:11

Re: Pacman undo update feature request/repo of old packages

#7 2009-02-27 14:27:52

Re: Pacman undo update feature request/repo of old packages

#8 2009-02-27 16:19:40

Re: Pacman undo update feature request/repo of old packages

#9 2009-02-27 17:36:30

Re: Pacman undo update feature request/repo of old packages

#10 2009-02-27 19:01:08

Re: Pacman undo update feature request/repo of old packages

#11 2009-02-27 19:32:23

Re: Pacman undo update feature request/repo of old packages

#12 2009-02-28 02:32:58

Re: Pacman undo update feature request/repo of old packages

#13 2009-02-28 07:37:48

Re: Pacman undo update feature request/repo of old packages

#14 2009-02-28 10:29:31

Re: Pacman undo update feature request/repo of old packages

#15 2009-02-28 13:03:00

Re: Pacman undo update feature request/repo of old packages

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