dnf update vs Software Udpates

[Pete Travis]

On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 5:22 PM, Suvayu Ali <fatkasuvayu+linux at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 07:20:11PM +0100, Ron Yorston wrote:
> > Suvayu Ali wrote:
> > >That said, I sometimes do not understand what's the harm in getting
> > >updates few hours later.  dnf already tells you how old the metadata is
> > >when it starts, you can choose to get the latest metadata if it is too
> > >old.  So what's the big deal?
> >
> > I certainly get the impression that dnf tells me about updates less
> > frequently than yum did.  It also seems to pull in metadata less
> > frequently.
>
> Everyone seems to picked on this post for me, whereas missing on my
> follow-up, with actual numbers:
>
>   <http://mid.gmane.org/20150722160112.GC1727@chitra.no-ip.org>
>
> > In fedora-updates.repo I have:  metadata_expire=6h.  I also have the
> > dnf-makecache.timer 'masked'.
>
> In the above post, I say I do not change any of the defaults metadata
> related configs.  From what people are posting, I have the feeling dnf
> relies a lot on _continuous_ network connectivity (which is true in my
> case).  If that is true, if either the connection at the users end is
> intermittent, or the mirrors are unreliable, the cache probably ends up
> being stale more often.
>
> Instead of bashing and complaining, I think trying to analyse why it
> works for me (and maybe a few others who are quiet), and not for the
> other participants in this thread, it would be a lot more helpful to the
> devs.  I can't help here since it actually works for me beautifully.
> Users who see a problem are the ones in a position to contribute an
> effective bug report.
>
> My 2¢, cheers,
>
> --
> Suvayu


There is a timer unit, `/usr/lib/systemd/system/dnf-makecache.timer`, that
fires ten minutes after each boot then one hour following the execution of
each previous run.  It triggers
`/usr/lib/systemd/system/dnf-makecache.service`, a service that executes
`dnf -v makecache timer`.  When that command runs, dnf will check the age
of the current metadata cache and refresh it if it is older than the value
of * metadata_timer_sync* (seconds) in `/etc/dnf/dnf.conf`.

So, an always-on computer should never have metadata older than 4 hours; in
practical terms, I think values >2 hours are increasingly unlikely.  A
computer that's been off overnight and turned on in the morning should have
a fresh cache within 15 minutes of boot.  If you have, say, a laptop that
you power down often and often install or update packages immediately after
boot, you might adjust the OnBootSec value by copying dnf-makecache.timer
to /etc/systemd/system/ and editing accordingly.  Or, consider appending
--refresh on an as-needed basis.

-- Pete
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