[ATrpms-users] Building new MX servers using atrpms

[Axel Thimm]

On Thu, Nov 30, 2006 at 07:29:53AM +1000, Michael Mansour wrote:
> For my older mail servers (still running SL4.4 with atrpms sa 3.1.7) I had a 
> couple of issues during the time of release upgrades, and Axel mentioned at 
> the time these issues arose from being "selective" in choosing which 
> packages I install from atrpms and which I don't.

> So my question is, what is the right way to do this?
> 
> I build my boxes through kickstart, so after the box is built, do I simply 
> do a:
> 
> # yum --enablerepo=atrpms -y update spamassassin

That will only update spamassassin and none of the dependencies
(unless the dependencies are not yet installed at all). So this
definitely counts as partial/selective ;-)

> and I'll be right? or do I do:
> 
> # yum --enablerepo=atrpms -y update
> 
> ?? which will go ahead and update every package to what's released from 
> atrpms??

Yes, that's what it will do, both all mail server packages, as well as
all non-releated ones.

There is no automated way to say to the depsolver to "get all packages
related to X from repo Y". This requires intelligence which only a
human can offer (at this point in time, in 2035 perhaps yum will be
able to yum smartinstall "an MX server for Michael" ;). E.g. there is
no way a depsolver can know that an updated package foo has some
support required for package bar.

So you are left with three options:

a) full repo enablement: You get what you want, but probably more.
b) selective/partial automated enablement: you sometimes miss what you
   need.
c) selective/partial manual cherry-picking: You need to know enough
   about internals of the packages to judge what to include/exclude

So if you want/need full control, you have to go c). You're your own
master, but you have to invest time into understanding package
relatuinships. If you just need it to work, you'll need a). You'll
also have support for that option in lists, bugzillas and google. b)
is fatal: You create your very own package universe - like in c) - but
you have no idea what is really happening, and you sit on your very
personal bugs.
-- 
Axel.Thimm at ATrpms.net
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