[TriLUG] Newbie question reguarding YUM and Linux.

[Owen Berry]

On Tue, Jan 10, 2006 at 03:01:01PM -0500, Christopher L Merrill wrote:
> Owen Berry wrote:
> >It's unpopular? I would like to hear some arguments for automatically
> >updating a system ... 
> 
> In my case, the reason is that if it doesn't get updated automatically,
> then it probably doesn't get updated at all.
> Now the disclaimer:
>   I'm not a sysadmin
> 
> It's my home server running my website and email.  Honestly, if I had yum
> send me e-mail about what updates are available, then I'd just blindly
> install them anyway, so why bother?  For me, it's safer to get the
> security patches than the off-chance that something will break.  By not
> getting the security patches, I am a danger to others. Breaking my website
> or email doesn't (generally) hurt anyone else.
> 
> Is that a good enough reason?
> 

I would still rather do it by hand myself, even in your scenario. I've
had an RPM replace a config file and restart a service, causing it to
stop working. Now what if it didn't break the service but installed a
default config, which is often too open. Now you *could* be a danger to
others. Or, what if it was your firewall that stopped working.

I'm also not a sysadmin, BTW, but I am paranoid. I prefer to make my
updates, and then test within reason for changes to system services, or
libraries that are likely to affect system services.

It's for these reasons that I like working with Gentoo. Portage has
some nice tools for helping you integrate configuration changes without
overwriting them. Not that it couldn't mess things up, but it is much
less likely.

If you really want to go this way, maybe an automated email of what was
changed would be an option. Just to help you keep an eye on things.

Owen