On Sun, Jul 21, 2019 at 03:56:31PM -0500, Andrew David Wong wrote:
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> On 16/07/2019 9.35 AM, unman wrote:
> > On Sun, Jul 14, 2019 at 09:13:16PM -0500, Andrew David Wong wrote:
> >> On 14/07/2019 9.08 PM, Andrew David Wong wrote:
> >>> On 14/07/2019 8.19 AM, unman wrote:
> >>>> On Sat, Jul 13, 2019 at 06:40:00PM -0500, Andrew David Wong
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> 1. When using the Qubes Update widget, a mgmt DisposableVM is 
> >>>>> started. Why is that? Is it just for executing Salt commands so
> >>>>>  that they're not executed in dom0?
> >>>
> >>>> Yes, this is standard in Qubes.
> >>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> 2. How can one update a TemplateVM the way the Qubes Update 
> >>>>> widget does? For example, when I update a Fedora TemplateVM 
> >>>>> myself, I just execute `dnf update` in the template. I don't 
> >>>>> start any DisposableVMs, so clearly my method of updating is 
> >>>>> different from what the Qubes Update widget does. Is there some
> >>>>>  kind of scriptable qubesctl command I can issue from dom0 that
> >>>>>  does the same thing as the Qubes Update widget?
> >>>>>
> >>>
> >>>> The update widget calls qubesctl and runs the state file in 
> >>>> /srv/formuals/base/update-formula/update/qubes-vm.sls
> >>>
> >>>> You can run this yourself by: qubesctl --skip-dom0 
> >>>> --targets=<targets> --show-output state.sls update.qubes-vm
> >>>
> >>>> Skip the "show-output" option if you want to script.
> >>>
> >>>> It's a wrapper to salts pkg.uptodate call, so you could put that 
> >>>> in a state file yourself.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Thanks, unman. I'm not quite sure what the last sentence means.
> >>> Why would one want to put that in a state file oneself?
> >>>
> >>
> >> Could you explain what these options mean?
> >>
> >>   --skip-dom0 -- The documentation doesn't really explain this.
> >>   --targets -- Is this the qube to be updated in this case?
> >>
> > --skip-dom0 -- Doesnt try to action state in dom0.
> > 
> > --targets -- You can give list of qubes to use as targets, (comma
> > delimited) or use keywords. 'qubesctl --templates'.
> > 
> 
> Thanks, unman. This is helpful, but I'm still unclear on --skip-dom0.
> 
> Looking at the command you provided:
> 
> qubesctl --skip-dom0 --targets=<targets> --show-output state.sls 
> update.qubes-vm
> 
> What is the difference between including --skip-dom0 and excluding that
> option?
> 
> It's counterintuitive to me that, if I *specify* a target to be acted
> upon using --targets, I *also* have to specify *not* to take action on a
> *different* target (namely dom0).
> 

Depending on how you structure your states, and interdependencies, this
is actually quite useful.
For example, you can create a qube, configured as you wish, and then
manipulate the files on that qube. Including dom0 allows you to do
equivalent of qvm-create and qvm-prefs.
If you subsequently change the preferences, you don't want to run the same
state against dom0, because that would revert the changes you have made,
so you can specify --skip-dom0 but apply the same state in the qube
filesystem.
For quick and dirty work that's fine.

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