Re: [gentoo-server] minimize service downtime during package updates

[Andrew Gaffney]

Maik Musall wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I find it difficult to minimize service downtime for things like apache
> when the package is to be updated. If I stop the service before
> emerging, downtime is longer than necessary since during the compile
> stage it could stay running. On the other hand, when I don't stop the
> service before emerge exchanges the binaries, things can become unstable
> (initscripts reporting service running but it isn't, or vice versa,
> segfaulting running binaries...).
>
> Ideal would be an emerge option that asks back for confirmation just
> before exchanging files. But that doesn't seem to exist.
>
> How do you handle this problem?

emerge -B apache && /etc/init.d/apache stop && emerge -1k apache && etc-update 
&& /etc/init.d/apache start

This builds a binary package of the updated apache, stops apache, installs the 
binary, updates config files, and then starts apache again. This results in the 
minimal amount of downtime.

-- 
Andrew Gaffney                            http://dev.gentoo.org/~agaffney/
Gentoo Linux Developer                                   Installer Project

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