[Tfug] Re: Newbie Follow-Up Question

[Tom Rini]

On Fri, Jul 05, 2002 at 03:07:42AM -0700, Bowie J. Poag wrote:

> > All of the software is up to date, and very stable, as well as being
> > tracked in the package management database.
> 
> Ahhhhhhh, okay. Now I get it. So Debian "stable" ___isn't___.

No.  Someone just told Chris to go and install woody, which is on it's
way to being stable, for some unknown reason.

The biggest problem with Debian is all of the people telling newbies to
go and use woody, which is almost but not quite sane (IIRC, the bit
where it will install woody and then try and grab 'stable' (-> currently
potato) packages was known and intentional.  I'm not sure if it was/will
be changed) instead of potato which really is stable & solid.  woody is
fine, as long as you remember the half dozen caviats and tricks for a
beta install.  Like Red Hat's LIMBO. :)


> > Well, I was intending to help Chris with his problem at the last meeting,
> > unfortunatly he did not show up as planned.  The problem was due to a bug
> > in the current woody snapshot cds (setting stable as the apt source
> > instead of testing).
> 
> He didnt go to the meeting for the same reason I dont answer the door when I
> see Jehovas Witnesses outside. Nobody likes a cult member trying to push an
> agenda, Harry!

... and now we see why Bowie is usually killfiled. :)

> > And why is that?  You spend how much of your time installing?  How much of
> > your time making sure that the system is up to date, and security patched,
> > and running smoothly?
> 
> Zero time, zero effort. I have the before-mentioned up2date command thrown
> in a crontab. My Red Hat box updates itself hourly without my even knowing
> about it.

Hourly update without user intervention?  Is that really a good thing?
The following is my overly elaborate script that I run every once in a
while to update any debian box (it requires deborphan to be installed
if you want the last part):
#! /bin/bash

# Clear the screen.
clear

# Run our normal apt tasks, and exit if one of them fails.
apt-get update || exit 1
apt-get upgrade || exit 1
apt-get clean || exit 1

# Test for any cruftly libraries we might now have on the system, and
# if we have any, remove them.
while `true`; do
        if [ "`deborphan`" == "" ]; then
                break
        else
                for i in `deborphan`; do
                        echo $i purge | dpkg --set-selections
                done
                dpkg --purge --pending
        fi
done

> > Yes, the debian install is a little more painful the first 10-20 times you
> > install, but the ease of management in the long run pays for itself in no
> > time at all.
> 
> Uhhhh...10 to 20?  Harry? Helllooooo.....

Yes, the debian/potato installer isn't nearly as purty or automatic as Red Hat
7.x (or Mandrake 8.x or current SuSE).

-- 
Tom Rini (TR1265)
http://gate.crashing.org/~trini/