what has 'yum update' done?

[Eddie G. O'Connor Jr.]

On 07/14/2013 08:35 AM, Matthew Miller wrote:
> On Sun, Jul 14, 2013 at 12:51:05AM +0200, lee wrote:
>>>> The package management tools in Debian send you emails about changes
>>>> like that, even about very little changes, when packages are being
>>>> replaced by more recent versions.  Maybe this could be done in Fedora as
>>>> well?
>>> You could try using yum-cron.
>> Automatic updates?  I'd rather not do that since it sometimes seems
>> advisable to reboot after an update.
> It's often advisable, but usually only because the updates may not take
> effect on already-loaded code and not all updates can restart all relevant
> services. So, applying updates and not restarting should be no worse than
> not restarting at all.
>
>>> Or, if you're interested in hacking a little
>>> bit, you could adapt
>>> ftp://linst.bu.edu/updates/monde/SRPMS/bulinux-autoupdate-1.1.8-bu50.7.src.rpm
>>> which I made for Boston University Linux back in the day. It would be kind
>>> of cool to see it made more generic (and possibly integrated with yum-cron).
>>> It's designed to give a sysadmin-friendly e-mail report of all packages
>>> updates.
>> It's not simply about knowing which packages have been or are to be
>> updated --- that I can see when running 'yum update'.  It's about
>> information what has actually changed when a package was updated.
> The problem here is that we have an overwhelming number of updates in
> Fedora. It would be very time-consuming to read them all. If you're
> interested or know you need this level of detail on your system, it's best
> to become familiar with the package names and check manually when you see an
> important package being updated.
>
>
>> The package maintainer knows what changed, and it doesn't hurt to add a
>> short note like this when they're making a new version of a package.  In
>> case there was a bigger change, the email could always suggest what
>> documentation to look at.
> Well, going to back to my first post in the thread, the package maintainer
> doesn't always know what changes are going to affect users. They should have
> a general idea, but software is complicated.
>
>
>> Why not make it one of the great features of Fedora?
> This update information _is_ produced. It's just not always done as well as
> it could be, and the tools don't make it available in the way you'd like
> right now.
>
>> Then take it to the next step and make systemd send mails in case a
>> service couldn't be started or has issues, and optionally have it send a
>> mail after booting has completed with a list of services that were
>> started.
> Generally, I don't think "more things generating e-mail" is the future of
> systems administration. :)
>
>
LOL!


EGO II