how do you check changelogs before upgrading?

manmachine · 2010-10-28 13:17:41

Hello everyone,
Is there a way to view package changelogs with pacman before upgrading?
Search returned some old threads that suggest that this is not possible,
and pacman -Qc only works after installing the upgrade.
(And i've yet to run into a package with a changelog anyway!)

Thanks

hokasch · 2010-10-28 13:25:18

Is there a way to view package changelogs with pacman before upgrading?

No. You can check packaging logs in subversion (packages link at the top), e.g. xbmc. For a software version changelog, you would have to look upstream.

manmachine · 2010-10-28 13:59:48

Thanks hokasch.
It would be nice if some info was available via pacman for a select few packages at least like the kernel or xorg.
I wouldn't worry too much about upgrading my IM client..

Cheers

ngoonee · 2010-10-28 14:26:37

[arch-dev-public] contains updates about things you should know about. You could filter for 'kernel' and 'xorg' if you want.

Allan · 2010-10-28 23:11:08

And those packages probably do not have package based changelogs anyway... So upstream is the source of info.

EVRAMP · 2010-10-29 22:42:41

I'm also for this feature, but it's useless until there are proper change logs.
They are handy especially when only new pkgrel is made, so we can quickly see what changed.
Thanks to all maintainers writing change logs.

rwd · 2010-10-31 19:54:35

+1 for more changelog info. Just a 10 -20 line summary would be enough for me. How a about a link to the upstream changelog in each major update in pacman's output?

Last edited by rwd (2010-10-31 19:54:51)

Allan · 2010-10-31 22:18:59

You can look at the SVN commit message. Maintaining a changelog is just annoying...

rwd · 2010-10-31 22:40:57

I'm not hindered by any knowledge of versioning systems, but wouldn't it be possible to automatically extract the changes from the upstream versioning system and show a url to them from the pacman output? Especially with a rolling release it seems to me people would be interested what it is they get with each major update, and a quick way to get that information without having to go through the svn repos.

Last edited by rwd (2010-10-31 22:53:53)

Allan · 2010-10-31 23:28:44

I was talking about the Arch SVN repos where we have a short commit message about why a package was updated.

Anyway, unless an automated solution is found, I doubt changelogs will become common place in Arch. As it is, they have been available in makepkg for ages and almost none of the developers use them as they are just annoying...

manmachine · 2010-11-02 01:38:10

Well even if some devs/packagers would bother to do this is there a mechanism in place?
I could be wrong but i'm guessing it would take an extra field in the PKGBUILD file?
Just like the pkgdesc="This app does this" line, which is displayed when you issue pacman -i.

I would be perfectly happy with just another one liner.
Even a simple flagging system, eg: "Security update", "New minor/major version", "bugfix" etc. would be very useful.

Then most users would know if they should upgrade ASAP or take their time to check upstream.

There may be other options too, perhaps it could be completely automated, after all don't most apps include the changelog file in the source? $ head x-lines src/changelog -> stick it in a new field for the pacman db?

Anyway just some food for thought.

iosonofabio · 2010-11-02 09:02:48

I do not really see the point. A typical example of usage would be the following:
- you pacman -Syu and see the kernel has changed;
- you refuse to upgrade and check the changelogs upstream, or the forums;
- if everything looks ok, you update.

Would it change anything if you saw e.g. a one-liner 'Security Fix' in pacman? I would check upstream anyway if the change is big. If the change is a minor one, it should work, this is exactly the rationale for the [testing] repos.

In this sense, I guess that mantaining changelogs (even if semi-automated) is not worth the time.

Leonid.I · 2010-11-02 16:42:44

iosonofabio wrote:

I do not really see the point. A typical example of usage would be the following:
- you pacman -Syu and see the kernel has changed;
- you refuse to upgrade and check the changelogs upstream, or the forums;
- if everything looks ok, you update.
Would it change anything if you saw e.g. a one-liner 'Security Fix' in pacman? I would check upstream anyway if the change is big. If the change is a minor one, it should work, this is exactly the rationale for the [testing] repos.
In this sense, I guess that mantaining changelogs (even if semi-automated) is not worth the time.

Yes, indeed. Besides, one could use a wrapper, like yaourt, to automatically fetch svn commit messages on updates. If people upgrade an arch linux installation frequently, they are not going to read changelogs anyway (because of shear number of those)...

Last edited by Leonid.I (2010-11-02 16:42:56)

rwd · 2010-11-02 18:31:03

Maybe I'm odd, but if a major update for some app is available I'd like to know what new functionality it has, not just for deciding if updating is safe or not.

manmachine · 2010-11-04 14:45:23

iosonofabio wrote:

I do not really see the point.
Would it change anything if you saw e.g. a one-liner 'Security Fix' in pacman?

Of course it would, i would not think twice before hitting 'y' if i knew right away that all the upgrade is all about is a security/bugfix.
On the other hand if it's a major version upgrade i would be inclined to wait until i know i can afford to spend time fixing potential breakage, and checking myself for changes & forum posts as suggested.

In any case this is not a deal breaker, i know arch is not redhat enterprise or ubuntu, users have to be more proactive and although new to arch, i do appreciate what i've got so far.
It's just that i found this useful in other distros and frankly at first i thought that i was missing something simple in pacman...hence the topic.

So bottom line is i can understand "packagers find this annoying and can't be bothered" but i would be surprised if most people really think this is a useless feature. Perhaps i'm odd too.
Maybe an automated solution could be worked in the future.

Cheers

Arch Linux

#1 2010-10-28 13:17:41

how do you check changelogs before upgrading?

#2 2010-10-28 13:25:18

Re: how do you check changelogs before upgrading?

#3 2010-10-28 13:59:48

Re: how do you check changelogs before upgrading?

#4 2010-10-28 14:26:37

Re: how do you check changelogs before upgrading?

#5 2010-10-28 23:11:08

Re: how do you check changelogs before upgrading?

#6 2010-10-29 22:42:41

Re: how do you check changelogs before upgrading?

#7 2010-10-31 19:54:35

Re: how do you check changelogs before upgrading?

#8 2010-10-31 22:18:59

Re: how do you check changelogs before upgrading?

#9 2010-10-31 22:40:57

Re: how do you check changelogs before upgrading?

#10 2010-10-31 23:28:44

Re: how do you check changelogs before upgrading?

#11 2010-11-02 01:38:10

Re: how do you check changelogs before upgrading?

#12 2010-11-02 09:02:48

Re: how do you check changelogs before upgrading?

#13 2010-11-02 16:42:44

Re: how do you check changelogs before upgrading?

#14 2010-11-02 18:31:03

Re: how do you check changelogs before upgrading?

#15 2010-11-04 14:45:23

Re: how do you check changelogs before upgrading?

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