On Dec 22, 2007 9:43 AM, Hylton Conacher (ZR1HPC) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi, > > This has been bothering me for a long time as I am battling to > understand the usage of software repositories. I haven't been able to > find a reference in the fine manual of 10.2 that describes this , hence > my question. > > I realise that the repositories are used for updates but why has some of > my software not been updated? I am also not expecting to get an update > from 10.2 to 10.3 but I would expect updates for the applications I use > on 10.2.
Not exactly. It works more or less like this: the main repository of each release is frozen. It will not change versions. It was tested and it will remains with this versions forever. They dont upgrade (people say upgrade like goin from version 2.4 to 2.6), but there is a repository called update for each release that has updates, being updates small changes (like from 2.4.6-32a to 2.4.6-32b). Updates are small changes, and they are made only for security and some bugfixing purpose. Thats the way it works, it wont get updated. Thats the whole purpose of testing and stabilising a release: you integrate, test and release those exact versions. Thats the right-way-to-do-it (TM). Sometimes people need some more recent software. This situation is kinda rare, most of time people want to upgrade with no reason (its a disease called upgraditis). For providing those extra new software, and some software that eventually is not in the main repository, for any reason, there are the aditional or specific repositories, like the Build service ones. > I would have thought that I would have had the latest stable releases as > I have oss and non-oss repositories loaded. I have read email about No, as Ive said the policy is that the main repository is frozen. > releases for Firefox ?3?, Thunderbird ?2.5? and OO.org 2.3 and yet my > system does not have the updated version of the software? > You would need extra repositories. Or install 10.3... Some of those stuff wont even be in 10.3, as they are more recent than the 10.3 release. > If I scour the opensuse site and find stable repositories for the above > software, should I add them? The reasons to upgrade are usually to fix some bug you are having or to get new features. > I would assume yes as the existing ones > have not updated the software substantially, You can say that, but that doesnt mean its good enough to enter the main repository, because it wasnt tested. You are on your own risk. > Let us assume, without making an ass out of u and me, that I find the > repository for Openoffice of: > http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/OpenOffice.org:/STABLE/openSUSE_10.2/ > > Before loading it is as a source I would load it into my browser. Here I > see there are several sub directories. Its good to load it in the browser for 2 reason: i) you know its acessible (some rare repos dont let you list it in the browser) and ii) identify if its really a source (like you've said, to identify where the path ends). For YUM repos, like the ones in Buildservice it ends in the path that contains the directory repodata. Check http://opensuse-community.org/AddSource > I would need to know where to end i.e. at the parent folder > ..openSUSE_10.2/, or the ...openSUSE_10.2/repodata/ folder, the > ...openSUSE_10.2/i586/ folder or in the ...openSUSE_10.2/noarch folder? > I would assume i586 but what is the difference between that and noarch? > That collection of directories makes one repository. Noarch is just the directory of the repo taht holds the packages that are the same in any arch, for example, one containing wallpapers, themes. > Bear in mind that I want YAST to do all the downloading, extracting and > correct installing i.e. I am a GUI person and know not the path to true > light i.e. CLI, yet. But I'll cover that in another email :) > Yast does that, in GUI, ncurses or command line, again check the link to o-c.org Best regards Marcio Ferreira --- Druid -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
