What happens if you don't pacman -Syu often?

wnwek · 2009-09-07 02:49:34

I am going to a place where I'll have internet access, about once in a month at the very best, mostly about once in 2 months. I know that's practically an age in Arch Linux time, but what exactly happens if I have such infrequent upgrades?

ozar · 2009-09-07 02:56:06

I'd check the front page for any important news regarding updates and the forums for any issues others are having before updating. Sometimes, a huge update can present certain problems, but not always. Otherwise, you'll probably be fine.

x33a · 2009-09-07 04:23:56

The only problem will be that you'll have 100s of megabytes of updates. and keeping track of what was updated will be difficult. also, if you get kernel updates and driver updates (video, audio, etc.) simultaneously, there might be some conflicts or problems.

Last edited by x33a (2009-09-07 04:24:25)

Allan · 2009-09-07 04:27:04

My main concern here would not be difficultly updating, but what happens if something breaks after updating and then you have no internet to fix it. I'd be very tempted not to update once I had a fully working system. If you are not on the internet, then security fixes are not such an issue...

tomk · 2009-09-07 06:15:40

To put it another way - if your monthly or bi-monthly online session will be long enough to include both the update, and any required post-update fixes, then do it. If it's only going to be a short check-your-mail, upload-a-few-photos thing, then don't.

buebo · 2009-09-07 08:04:05

I just came back from a six weeks motorbike trip through eastern Europe. Did not update Arch at all for about two weeks prior to my departure as well. I was very worried about some mess going to happen and promised myself just to switch back to ubuntu, since I just wanted to finish some writing and develop my pics pronto without spending too much time tracking down update errors.

What can you say, update went smooth and without any errors at all and I'm still a happy Archer.

It was about 1 gig of updates to download though.

ngoonee · 2009-09-07 08:40:57

Its not guaranteed that your long time between updates will crash something, bluebo. Its just more likely to happen. I think primarily you need to watch out for packages in core as well as your binary drivers.

wnwek · 2009-09-07 09:38:19

Okay. So the best thing would be to update as often as I can. If I can't update for a long time (> 8 weeks), I just come back and install Arch afresh to avoid any possible headaches. Right? And of course, have another backup of all my stuff, just in case, something breaks.

Hopefully, my system shouldn't break. Or else, I am camping out at my friends' place till I get Arch back!

Thank you all!

Another question: Suppose there are x number of programs to be updated, after I do pacman -Syu, in what order does pacman go about upgrading them? Does it install the earliest update first, so that breakage is minimised?

combuster · 2009-09-07 10:02:56

Only breakage you can get is because unresolved dependancy in packages (and that will not break your system) and it's very rare, and other is if some package breaks the entire system because of some bug but that almost never happenes because sensitive packages must go through testing first. I'd say it's easier to update once every day or at least once a week just to ease the pain of waiting for update to finish if you have to download 1GB of updates...

arkay · 2009-09-07 11:19:35

It's not that big a deal if done carefully. On my myth backend I update twice a year. If you're that concerned about it take a clonezilla image of your OS first. 4 minutes later you can be back to where you started if you have issues. That being said if everything is working as you require then there is no real need to update. If it ain't broke..

Another way to manager it is to have two partitions dedicated to Arch. Before the update image the working partition to the section spare partition. The boot off the spare and run the -Syu there. If you have problems go back to the original. No harm done. If the update works fine (and/or you fix the issues), then change grub to point to the newly upgraded partition as primary. Next time you're dur for updates just repeat the process imaging the current working config to the now spare partition.

The advantage to the above is that you can take your time to resolve issues on the freshly upgraded partition. You just bootinto it when you have time to fiddle. The rest of the time your working config is only 1 boot away.

Cheers,

Arkay.

wnwek · 2009-09-07 11:25:09

The partition suggestion is sweet. I shall look into that. Thanks!

alecmg · 2009-09-07 11:26:32

I find these doubts disturbing. Afterall, there shouldn't be any difference if you update rarely, as long as you do it in one batch.
The only problem with large updates is difficulty of tracking down faulty package in case something breaks. But it shouldn't break in first place.

(then again by now I am used to reinstalling ATI catalyst after every xorg-server update, else X black screens)

shining · 2009-09-07 13:57:31

alecmg wrote:

I find these doubts disturbing. Afterall, there shouldn't be any difference if you update rarely, as long as you do it in one batch.

Of course there are differences, big ones even.

Since the operation is much bigger and more complex, there is much more places for failures, and it is much easier to miss something.
Additionally, I doubt the upgrade path from old systems is tested. I guess that in most cases, it works fine, and in special cases, packagers think about this issue, but it is still not the same as upgrading regularly.

keenerd · 2009-09-07 15:53:47

I have one file/vnc/mp3/game/tunnel server that is updated and rebooted once a year. Never had any problems, but three years is hardly a representative sample.

Just be sure to check your pacnew files.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-09-07 02:49:34

What happens if you don't pacman -Syu often?

#2 2009-09-07 02:56:06

Re: What happens if you don't pacman -Syu often?

#3 2009-09-07 04:23:56

Re: What happens if you don't pacman -Syu often?

#4 2009-09-07 04:27:04

Re: What happens if you don't pacman -Syu often?

#5 2009-09-07 06:15:40

Re: What happens if you don't pacman -Syu often?

#6 2009-09-07 08:04:05

Re: What happens if you don't pacman -Syu often?

#7 2009-09-07 08:40:57

Re: What happens if you don't pacman -Syu often?

#8 2009-09-07 09:38:19

Re: What happens if you don't pacman -Syu often?

#9 2009-09-07 10:02:56

Re: What happens if you don't pacman -Syu often?

#10 2009-09-07 11:19:35

Re: What happens if you don't pacman -Syu often?

#11 2009-09-07 11:25:09

Re: What happens if you don't pacman -Syu often?

#12 2009-09-07 11:26:32

Re: What happens if you don't pacman -Syu often?

#13 2009-09-07 13:57:31

Re: What happens if you don't pacman -Syu often?

#14 2009-09-07 15:53:47

Re: What happens if you don't pacman -Syu often?

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