Re: [tlug] Long-term Stability Distros (was: Flash and Firexfox 2)

[Frank Lee <frank@example.com>]

----- "Clemens Schwaighofer" <gullevek@example.com> wrote:

> From: "Clemens Schwaighofer" <gullevek@example.com>
> To: "Tokyo Linux Users Group" <tlug@example.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 1, 2009 2:37:19 PM GMT +09:00 Japan
> Subject: Re: [tlug] Long-term Stability Distros (was: Flash and Firexfox 2)
>
> On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 23:36, Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com> wrote:
> > 2009/3/13 Daniel A. Ramaley <daniel.ramaley@example.com>:
> >
> >> I changed to Debian for exactly the same reasons you are
> describing.
> >> Well, that and dependency Hell. I've heard that dependency Hell
> doesn't
> >> happen anymore on Red Hat based distros,
> >
> > As long as there are dependencies, there will be Dependency Hell.
> The
> > real question is, does your distro give you tools for dealing with
> it?
> > I find Debian / Ubuntu just as frustrating as Red Hat (and other
> > RPM-based distros). Gentoo and other source-based distros do a
> better
> > job, simply because they give you compile-time control over what
> > dependencies you choose to accept, as long as the source builds
> > themselves have reasonable configuration scripts.
> 
> In my 7 years of Debian usage, and I have two servers that are almost
> 6 years with the same debian/testing tree, I never *never* had
> dependencies problems.
> 
> I do have them in redhat. All the time. With everything. Everytime I
> want/have to upgrade some minor package it is a walk through fire ...

I've been using CentOS 5.1 through 5.2 (now 5.3) (CentOS is Redhat without the trademarks) for the past year.

I think Yum is the apt-get for Redhat/CentOS. (Apt-get is a package manager used on Debian/Ubuntu, yum is used on Redhat/CentOS for those unfamiliar with these distros.) So far, I've never had any dependency problems using "yum install <package>" *AND* staying away from using "rpm -ivh <package>". Running "yum update" won't update anything installed with "rpm".

What I've done to keep the base system and packages updated was:
1. For the base system: Use "yum install <package>" and never, never use "rpm -ivh <package>". So running "yum update" and "yum upgrade" has the same effect as "apt-get update" and "apt-get upgrade".
2. For other packages: Add the Dag Wieers repository (something like /etc/yum.repos.d/Dag.repo). Then run the 2 commands:
yum --enablerepo=Dag update
yum --enablerepo=Dag upgrade

which the first command will update everything that you've installed from the Dag repository and the second will upgrade them. Whenever I wanted something from the Dag repo, instead of going to the site and downloading, just run "yum install <package>" or "yum search <name>" then install. The Dag repo has done a good job keeping updated.

--
Frank Lee