general questions about updates

Kevin Cozens kevin-4dS5u2o1hCn3fQ9qLvQP4Q at public.gmane.org
Fri Aug 31 17:11:42 UTC 2007


Chris Aitken wrote:
> I just got my first "There are four updates" offering. Then I get to 
> view the updates to accept them or not. Is there any general wisdom 
> about accepting these updates?

Only four? :-)  Some days you will see more updates than four. It all depends 
on how long it has been since you last checked for updates. The general wisdom 
would be to accept all updates. The only exceptions would be kernel updates 
and (possibly) major new versions of programs.

> 1. Are they usually so small you might as well just take 'em all?

The size will vary depending on the size of the package. For example, 
OpenOffice packages are rather large so the updates are also a lot of bytes 
that need to be downloaded.

> 2. Are they likely to enhance operations of other applications

You need to look at the details about the update (if it is provided). Updates 
can be security related fixes, bug fixes, or a new version with extra features.

The updates available are just a list of newer packages available. They don't 
always relate to each other.

> 3. Are the offerings customized to my system, or are they just all the 
> updates created in the four days since I installed fedora7

The updates are offered are based on what you have installed on the machine 
and/or what needs to be installed to update a package. Sometimes a newer 
version of a package will have additional dependencies so pacakges will get 
installed that you may not have previously had on your machine.

Sometimes updates will let you know you have something installed on your 
machine which you may not need. The update program won't tell you that. When 
you see something that doesn't look familiar (or out of curiousity) you ask 
what something is and/or who needs it you may find out that you don't want it 
and/or the thing that may need it. I've gotten rid of a few things as a result 
(not that disk space is much of a concern these days).

-- 
Cheers!

Kevin.

http://www.ve3syb.ca/           |"What are we going to do today, Borg?"
Owner of Elecraft K2 #2172      |"Same thing we always do, Pinkutus:
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