On Mon, Aug 04, 2003, Vinod Kutty wrote:

Dear Vinod,

> The larger concern is this: I use openpkg because it saves time (amongst
> other benefits) when it comes to compiling software. If I have to upgrade
> my openpkg installs just because I want to update a single package, it
> adds complexity/instability to our environment.
> 
Maybe a more correct statement is: "you have to upgrade the OpenPKG
bootstrap just because you want to update one or more packages".

As long as you stick with a certain release, you don't have to do that.
When it comes to mixing up different releases and/or STABLE and/or
CURRENT things become more complex.

> I'm happy that openpkg is evolving (congrats on the 1.3 release !), and I
> fully expect some incompatibilities with each new release, but there is
> significant value for an end user such as myself being able to focus on
> the software packages themselves and have a management layer (openpkg) as
> transparent as possible. Not an easy thing to do, but I hope you will keep
> that in mind, as I suspect you already do.
> 
Yes, we do. That's why we provide backwards compatiblity [1] which
allows you to upgrade the OpenPKG bootstrap to v1.3 and continue to run
your existing v1.2 packages - and, of course, allows you to add new v1.3
packages.

I also want to point out that you can rescue your existing
openpkg-1.2.0-1.2.0.<arch-os>-<id>.rpm binary. OpenPKG v1.3 allows you
to install that using the --oldpackage option, which means it commits
suicide and downgrades itself back to v1.2 in case you experience a
major problem with the new release.

A not completely unrelated side note: the open source community evolves
fast. RedHat recently announced that they're trying to speed up their
upgrade cycle because two annual releases do not allow them to keep
pace with open source vendor's releases. We at OpenPKG are aware of
this issue and our statement is clearly that we only support the latest
release and it's immediate predecessor. In other words, the release
of OpenPKG v1.3 rendered OpenPKG v1.1 installations obsolete. We are
also moving at a speed of roughly two annual releases, so you will run
into the troubles of outdated, nonsupported, non security fixed etc.
problems if any of your installations stays bedraggled for a year or
more. In contrast, OpenPKG security updates are designed to be drop-in
replacements and usually require little or no brain work.

Back to your original inquiry i recommend you save your
openpkg-1.2.0-1.2.0.<arch-os>-<id>.rpm binary and upgrade the bootstrap
to OpenPKG v1.3 openpkg-1.3.0-1.3.0.src.rpm. Then examine if everything
continues to work as expected. Finally start to upgrade existing and/or
install new packages. Have fun!

[1] search for "BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY" in $PREFIX/etc/rc.func

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