[KLUG Members] Re: problem with updates on Ubuntu 7.1

[Robert G. Brown]

> Robert G. Brown wrote:
>> I have seen what Brock originally described on several occasions, and it
>> is a byproduct of the sorts of update tools that have come into common
>> use.
>>
>> Most of the tools (rpm, YaST, etc.) pack up the software needed for the
>> update, scripts to actually do the install, ...

>> Let's say that you don't do an update for a while. In the meantime, the
>> developers have been real busy, and cumulatively, they didn't write only
>> 1 new version of the package in question, but 2.

>>...The repository essentially determines how many updates are
>> needed to update the SOFTWARE YOU HAVE RIGHT NOW (not shouting, this is
>> an important point to remember).
>>
>> So you download and install all of those updates.... Because you have
>> changed the software on your system, you may now be eligible for MORE
>> updates than before!

>> When this all started, let's say you had a package called "A", and it's
>> version 2.3.4. The repository query says there is an upgrade available,
>> "A" version 2.3.6. So your update got and installed "A" 2.3.6. the next
>> query shows that "A" version 2.4.0 is available (but it required 2.3.6
>> to be installed, 2.3.4 was not "good enough"). Also, 2.4.0 requires the
>> "Flivver"and the "Blabber" libraries...your inital update showed 1 update
>> available ("A" 2.3.4 to "A" 2.3.6) and the second update shows THREE
>> updates ("A" 2.3.6 -> 2.4.0, libflivver AND libblabber). ...


Mike Williams Added:
> Gentoo's Portage system, which I think was adapted from BSD, gets around
> that problem.  It downloads source packages and compiles them, compiling
> in options based on "use flags" that you set in a config file.  An
> update takes longer since it has to compile everything, but the final
> code is smaller and more efficient than generic binaries.  There are a
> couple ways of launching the update process.  A regular "update world",
> which behaves just like you described above, and an "update world deep"
> that gets the newest version of everything it can find plus any oher
> packages required by the updated versions.  For reasons I don't fully
> understand, you have to run a "revdep-rebuild" to handle reverse
> dependencies (whatever those are) after you do a deep update.  I think
> that process handles rebuilding package A if "Flivver" or "Blabber" were
> updated.

Yes, there are a number of software management and distribution systems -
and repositories - that are responding to the demand to more easily update
everything to the latest and (probably) greatest, and that includes
traversing all the relationships composed from all the prerequisites that
exist between and among various packaged items.

I was illustrating the overall condition that Brock seemd to have a rough
time understanding... how the system can say one needs X updates which are
then done, and then one finds you have X+ updates! This sort of thing is
counterintuitive to some people....

   Regards,
    ---> RGB <---