Re: [gentoo-amd64] backups and world updates

[Roy Wright <royw@cisco.com>]

Howdy,

What I do is run a nightly script that:
* cleans up tmp files
* runs revdep-rebuild
* runs emerge --sync
* runs eupdatedb
* runs update-eix
* runs a pretend emerge -uDNvp world
* runs a fetchonly emerge -uDNq --fetchonly world
* greps the ebuilds for einfo, ewarn, and eerror lines
* runs glsa-check
The output of everything is then mailed to me.
I originally got the script from the gentoo-users list
but didn't save the link (maybe scan the archives for
portage.cron or if you want I can post what I have).

Then I review the email and decide when to update.

A red flag is if the einfo mentions revdep-rebuild.
In that case I emerge that package by name allowing
dependencies, then do the revdep-rebuild, then
the emerge world.

Most of the time, I just open an konsole and do the
update.  Occasionally I'll postpone if the update looks
really large or time consuming.  For major gui components
like KDE or xorg, I'll exit KDE and emerge from the
command line over the weekend (ok, probably overly
cautious, but I was burned once).

Occasionally I'll get a blocking condition.  I really think
twice now before just unblocking via package.keywords.
I've found that waiting a day or two might result in
portage handling the unblocking.

HTH,
Roy

Mark wrote:

>Thanks to everyone who helped me get my system back after a couple of
>world update snafus. Now of course I'm a little gun-shy about using
>options like emerge --update world. So what's my best bet to keep my
>system up to date, while protecting it from my own lack of
>understanding of updating config files?
>
>Here's what I'm intending to do so far:
>
>1. Prior to running any large system update, back up /etc to another location
>2. use dispatch-conf instead of etc-update
>
>Can anyone make any other suggestions? Which emerge options are best
>for full system updates? Thanks
>  
>
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