Hi John,

> Ken Teh wrote:
> > If I install packages from ATrpms or DAG, do I simply modify the enable 
> > flag in the respective repo files in /etc/yum.repo.d so the system gets 
> > properly updated from these other repos during the nightly yum update 
> > cron job?  Is it really this simple or are there side-effects I should 
> > be aware of?
> 
> I enabled some repos on a CentOS4 box and did an upgrade.
> 
> I was unamused to find my postgresql got updated from 7.x to 8.x.
> 
> I've nothing against postgresql 8.x, but I really didn't want to 
> convert my database in a rush.

I'm sure we've all experienced this at some stage in our admin careers.

The lessons to be learnt from such things is:

* don't blindly enable things without knowing what you're enabling.

* if using yum, don't use "yum -y" as that will assume a "yes" to all
questions. A standard "yum" without the -y option will prompt you before
applying the updates with "Are you sure you want to install y/N" with the
default being N. 

yum provides you with the list of packages it's going to update before it
updates, it's easy to scroll that list to see if postgresql (or any other
package you need) is going to be updated and from what repo it's updating it from.

* if using yum, look at your /var/log/yum.log file to see what was updated and
you can downgrade easily from there to previous packages.

* make a backup or image of your server/desktop if possible before applying
multiple updates.

Personally I use rpmforge and atrpms exclusively for the things I need and
don't want to spend too much time packaging myself, but for the things they
don't have, I simply spend the time to package myself and maintain myself.

Regards,

Michael.

> --
> 
> Cheers
> John
> 
> -- spambait
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