Packaging updates?

audiodef · Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 3:35 am Post subject: Packaging updates?

Some of you know I run GentooStudio.org, and this question is about Portage finagling related to that.

I'd like to make it easy for users of GS to apply updates. I provide a stage 4 tarball installation. Is it possible to also create a tarball of updates that can be downloaded once a month and unpacked? Running updates manually is not hard, but there are often issues that need to be dealt with. If I can deal with them and package it all into a neat update download so the user doesn't have to deal with any update issues, I think that might be useful.
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Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21624

For updates, why not just offer them as prebuilt binary packages? You can serve them up via http and let users use -G or offer a downloadable bundle of .tbz2 files that the user can unpack into $PORTDIR/packages.

steveL · Posted: Sat Mar 01, 2014 5:11 am Post subject:

What Hu said. If you're still using update, that supports multiple binhosts, so you could have gentoo's tinderbox, and Patrick's ones as backup. You might want to add --binpkg-respect-use y to EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS though. Let me know if there's something else needed. Personally I'd like the option of deciding whether I want to use the package as-is, or compile my own, on a case-by-case basis, but never got round to writing it. (I was hoping portage would progress in this area further than it has in the last 5 years.)

The other option is to run an rsync server and have people sync from that instead of Gentoo infra, but then you don't get any mirroring. Personally I quite like that idea though, since a binhost also requires you to run a server, but effectively makes you a bindist with all the attendant hassle.

audiodef · Posted: Sun Mar 02, 2014 4:00 am Post subject:

This has given me a lot to consider! I appreciate the replies.

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audiodef · Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 3:40 am Post subject:

I was just wondering... if you unpack a stage 4 tarball into an existing system, would that royally screw the system up? I'm wondering if that could be used as an update delivery. Maybe not the entire system, but maybe just /usr/bin and other places where binaries and relevant updated package files would be.
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Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21624

Yes, that could cause problems. Do not do it. Depending on how you unpack it, you will either make the CONTENTS file diverge from the actual files or you will synchronize the CONTENTS file and forget any files that were in the pre-update form of the package that are not in the post-update form.

audiodef · Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 5:53 pm Post subject:

I didn't think it would be that easy. Thanks for the warning.
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