Updating Packages

Dieter Baron < dillo@NetBSD.org >

Thomas Klausner < wiz@NetBSD.org >

Current State: make update

• unstable: stops if building a package fails
• inefficient: re-installs same package multiple times
• only one package (and its dependents) at a time

Current State: make replace

• unsafe: can delete needed shared library
• only one package at a time
• should use PROVIDES/REQUIRES to check that update is safe

Current State: pkg_chk -u(b)

• unstable: stops if building a package fails
• deletes all outdated packages before downloading/building new ones
  (can leave many missing packages)

Safe Update: Steps to Take

1. find all outdated packages
2. get binary packages
3. optionally build missing packages in sandbox
4. check that set of packages is consistent
5. optionally make binary packages of packages to be deleted
6. update all non-automatic and all used automatic packages
7. remove all unused automatic packages

Rollback Options

• undo update completely
• undo update of a leaf package
• undo update of a library and its users
• undo update of a library without its users (if no major version bump)
• undo update of a leaf package and all its updated dependencies

Open Questions: Error Recovery

• no package found (and building failed)
  • use old version?
  • skip updating this part of the dependency tree?
  • leave packages missing?
  • let user choose from above?