From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1M4FFr-0004Oe-LX for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Wed, 13 May 2009 14:16:19 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id BA627E02CB; Wed, 13 May 2009 14:16:17 +0000 (UTC) Received: from smtpout.karoo.kcom.com (smtpout.karoo.kcom.com [212.50.160.34]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 71103E02CB for ; Wed, 13 May 2009 14:16:17 +0000 (UTC) X-IronPort-AV: E=Sophos;i="4.41,187,1241391600"; d="scan'208";a="92982792" Received: from unknown (HELO compaq.stroller.uk.eu.org) ([213.152.39.90]) by smtpout.karoo.kcom.com with ESMTP; 13 May 2009 15:16:16 +0100 Received: from [192.168.1.71] (unknown [192.168.1.71]) by compaq.stroller.uk.eu.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5180D137BC5 for ; Wed, 13 May 2009 15:16:13 +0100 (BST) Message-Id: <73326D2F-33AC-4BC8-9118-4782D4D700BB@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> From: Stroller To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org In-Reply-To: <200905131217.11212.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v930.3) Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Re: how to recover a portage that wasn't in use for very long time Date: Wed, 13 May 2009 15:16:10 +0100 References: <1430318F-36A1-4095-B8DE-014A1915AC67@gmail.com> <4A0A9AFC.50203@gmail.com> <200905131217.11212.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.930.3) X-Archives-Salt: 2acb1702-9628-4d69-97ff-7bb69bfe2813 X-Archives-Hash: 0e8af73192a42e85e1da9aaa30d8534f On 13 May 2009, at 11:17, Alan McKinnon wrote: > ... > Why are you doing this? Is it to learn how to cope with such things? > > If not, you are really wasting time that you will never get back. ... > > Trust me, if this is not a learning exercise, just unmount your data > volumes > and reinstall the machine. The pain is not worth it. Really. ... I'm inclined to disagree with you here. Obviously, it depends on the user - as I've undertaken this, I knew not to bother asking here because I knew I'd receive exactly this response. I examined ebuilds to see the blockers & looked up compatible versions in the portage attic, and I did my own searches when I came to problems like this one. And so far I've been ok. In my case, reinstallation would be a huge pain. I would be massively worrying about which services on the machine I need to configure again, and whether everything I needed had been backed up properly. I have forgotten the original procedures I followed setting up many of these services, and it could easily take a week to set the machine up from scratch. If I upgrade the "obsolete portage" incrementally, I know that everything is still working, and I update the machine without disruption to the users who depend upon the machine. If a service fails during the procedure, then it is only ONE service that I have to fix, not several. As I upgrade a package & run etc-update I can back up the original config files, and if I find the new ones are vastly different then I can refer to the originals &/or diff them in. If this upgrade procedure is undertaken cautiously, then it is no worse or different than it was when the changes originally entered the portage tree. One can `emerge -pv world` and then emerge the first package with --oneshot, rinse & repeat. Sure, this is potentially time- consuming, but I can leave packages compiling whilst I'm doing other things - reinstalling from scratch a base Gentoo installation isn't too bad (hardware, logger, housekeeping), but once you add in a number of services then I'm going to need to dedicate some time to the job. I'm not reading Alexey too clearly, but it seems to me that he is saying he has a full system backup. In this case one can restore to that in minutes if something goes hosed badly during an emerge or if the users come in the next morning & complain that $facility isn't working. I'm NOT saying that this procedure is for everyone, but equally I don't think it's fair to say there's NEVER any justification for it. Stroller.