what has 'yum update' done?

[lee]

Reindl Harald <h.reindl at thelounge.net> writes:

> Am 07.07.2013 17:53, schrieb lee:
>> If Fedora cannot be updated without major problems, it's
>> not useable.
>
> if you follow this guides *strictly* and willing to learn to deal
> wtih "package-cleanup --leaves | --problems | --orphans and
> to understand how your OS basically works you are fine
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum

When you look at the wiki, they are recommending to use fedup for
upgrades, and they are saying "Upgrading directly from one release to
the next using yum is not explicitly tested by Fedora QA"[1] and it
might work only by chance because of "packaging guidelines providing
detailed information on maintaining upgradability"[1].  They are even
saying that they don't know why it might work or not and are guessing
that it is "probably due to"[1] the packaging guidelines.

Considering that Fedora does not have a working (and tested and
supported) upgrade method at all, such packaging guidelines seem very
questionable.  That means you're simply lucky if you manage to upgrade.
That users are quick to suggest to reinstall instead of trying to
upgrade seems to support this conclusion.

So we have three options to upgrade:


1.) the recommended fedup which probably doesn't work
2.) the untested and unsupported way using yum which might work or not
3.) move away from Fedora and install a different distribution


No. 1.) didn't work last time, and there is some indication that it
won't work this time, either.  No. 2.) might not work anymore sooner or
later, if it works at all to begin with --- and it's all guesswork
anyway.

That leaves only option 3.) for anyone who wants a system they can keep
running and up to date with some reliability for more than half a year.


[1]: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgrading#Upgrading_directly_using_Yum

> if you want simple fire&forget upgrades and not invest time
> and energy to learn how the system basically works and what
> major changes are meaning for you in case of upgrades use
> CentOS or whatever LTS distribution

That is a very different issue.  The problem is that there apparently
isn't a working way to upgrade Fedora.

Add to that that a simple 'yum update' made a severe mess, not only
basically putting the system into an unbootable state but also trying to
upgrade without even indicating that it would try this and without even
asking me if I wanted that.

Only by examining the configuration of the boot manager I was able to
boot again.  That was just luck and I could have been left stranded with
a non-bootable system.

Such behaviour is unacceptable.  My question is:  What went wrong?  Or
was that even intended?

The method for upgrading you suggest is not recommended and untested.
It might be a great a way to do it or it might fail.  That doesn't have
anything to do with learning "how the system basically works and what
major changes are meaning for" me.

Atm, I'm undecided if I even should try to upgrade or save myself the
hassle and just move on to another distribution which might be more
reliable.  I don't want to have problems with updating all the time, and
so far, Fedora promises to continue to give me these problems.


-- 
"Object-oriented programming languages aren't completely convinced that
you should be allowed to do anything with functions."
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/08/01.html