Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Official way to do rolling update (Was: Re: Releng breakage with respect to move from dev-python/python-exec to dev-lang/python-exec)

[Tom Wijsman <TomWij@gentoo.org>]

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On Mon, 04 Nov 2013 06:06:52 -0600
Dale <rdalek1967@gmail.com> wrote:

> But after a person has used Gentoo a while, they figure out what
> process leads to the most stable update process.

Do they? What do you consider a stable update process?

I come across users on a daily basis which

 - haven't upgraded their system lately because they're not good at it;
 - get into unclear slot conflicts locking them out of updates;
 - some build failure disallows their dependency graph from completing;
 - managed to finally update, but don't know about depclean;
 - managed to finally depclean, but don't know about eclean.

It involves a lot of prior knowledge, manual checking and what in order
to be able to update the system; I wouldn't label this "stable", but
rather "dependent on the person updating it" and to some extent even
"dependent on whether the person memorized all the docs and/or gets
helped or get it told in the support channels".

There are some improvements possible in these situations; I'm planning
to discuss some ideas and write some patches where possible, and I
hope other people jump on the bandwagon to help improve user experience.

That doesn't mean I consider it bad or that we need to go hand holding.

> The only way to get a more stable system is to do a emerge -e world
> and update that way.  At least that has been my experience so far.

I have never needed this; I wonder whether there exists an example case
for this, I only see this used when someone changes compiler / flags
and wants to ensure the whole system turns into rice. *

> If Zac adds some other nifty feature, then I may add to the above as
> needed. For the past few years, that has resulted in as stable a
> system as I can get.  I do from time to time run emerge -e world just
> for giggles when I have something acting odd and can't put my finger
> on the issue. Sometimes, that fixes it, sometimes not.
> 
> Again, most of this comes from experience.  The handbook explains it
> then the user figures it out from there.

 * http://funroll-loops.info/

-- 
With kind regards,

Tom Wijsman (TomWij)
Gentoo Developer

E-mail address  : TomWij@gentoo.org
GPG Public Key  : 6D34E57D
GPG Fingerprint : C165 AF18 AB4C 400B C3D2  ABF0 95B2 1FCD 6D34 E57D

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