Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 11:49:13 +0200 From: "Christian Walther" <cptsalek@gmail.com> To: "Chad Perrin" <perrin@apotheon.com> Cc: FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>, Michael Grant <mg-fbsd3@grant.org> Subject: Re: keeping all things up to date Message-ID: <14989d6e0704170249v486f3ad9vc5c8df53378229ca@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20070417091026.GA17020@demeter.hydra> References: <62b856460704170112x7bae258dm5aede163b203a85b@mail.gmail.com> <20070417091026.GA17020@demeter.hydra>
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On 17/04/07, Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com> wrote: > On Tue, Apr 17, 2007 at 10:12:31AM +0200, Michael Grant wrote: > > Is there some sort of automated way to keep freebsd and all the > > installed ports/packages up to date automatically? > > > > I don't mean just the source, that part is easy. I mean something > > that actually reinstalls the things ad needed, sort of like windows > > update or the updater on ubuntu. > > Have you used MS Windows much -- enough to notice that often a patch can > break something? Now imagine that Windows Update also has to handle a > bunch of third-party applications. Imagine that "a bunch" is roughly > equal to 15,000. Realize that, without direct control over the > development of all those additional applications, the chance of a patch > to any one of them causing more problems than it fixes is increased. > > Of course, FreeBSD is managed in a much more sane fashion, but the > increased chance of problems does exist in such circumstances. There > are ways to try to minimize that, however. The one FreeBSD seems to > take, as a project, is to do the very best job possible fixing every > potential problem that comes up in a reasonable amount of time, and > telling us about the things that can't just be magically "fixed" that > quickly in the /usr/ports/UPDATING file. > [...] Just as an example that just came up recently: gettext was updated in the ports tree, which required a rebuild of all ports that depend on it. I missed reading /usr/ports/UPDATING before, so I didn't notice this fact. I did an update on my girlfriends laptop which resulted in several applications not being usable anymore. Imagine my face as I had to explain to her why she was unable to use her machine for one and a half day. Another lesson learned... That's why I agree to Chad: Doing automatic updates isn't advisable. They might even come at the wrong time, e.g. when you need your system resources. I'm thinking about monsters like OpenOffice, GNOME or KDE.
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