I know that upgrading glibc can cause some programs to break if they
were built against the previous glibc. This happens to me all the time
and I have gotten in the habit of simply re-emerging any packages that
misbehave since a glibc upgrade.
Well, I have upgraded both glibc and gcc within the last week or so.
And I've been contemplating a kernel upgrade too. I looked at genlop
and it said it will take a mere fourteen hours to re-emerge everything
with an emerge -e world. I'm tempted to do it, but I'm wary of making
major changes to a system that currently seems to be working perfectly.
However, I've only tested a handful of packages (the ones that I use
every day) since the glibc upgrade, and I did have to rebuild a few of
them. For this reason, I'm guessing that a significant number of the
packages that I haven't tested are actually broken too. So when I say
my system seems to be working perfectly, I think that only applies to
the packages that I interact with daily and probably not to some of the
ones that I don't.
When does it make sense to re-emerge everything? I've heard some people
say never but that others do it perhaps monthly or even more often.
Is there a (significant) risk that something will go wrong? Even
terribly wrong?
Is it possible that some important programs aren't working right now due
to having been built against an older glibc, and that I'm simply
oblivious to the fact that they aren't working? I'm worried
specifically about system programs that I don't usually have reason to
interact with, yet may be vitally important to the security and
stability of my system.
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