Re: [gentoo-server] upgrading to gcc 3.4.4 on production server

[Timo Veith]

Am Mittwoch 15 Februar 2006 01:02 schrieb Michael Stewart (vericgar):
> You really should set up a test environment (if you don't have one
> already) and do it there.

Hmm, I've done a upgrade on my personal workstation and it went ok. So the 
issue is not that I haven't done any gcc upgrade, yet. But on my 
workstation nobody else is affected if anything goes wrong. I can do 
reboots, unmerges or remerges etc.

I am a little concerned about doing it on the production server, although 
I don't know of any problems yet. I just want to be carefull.

> You may also want to consider setting up a build server which will
> compile your packages for your specific setup so all you have to do on
> the production server is merge the binary.

Of course in general this is a good thing, but setting up a build 
environment for just about five production systems seems to be too much 
overhead to me. The machines we have aren't the same, as far as 
architecture is concerned. So I would have to build packages with 
different compiler flags. Probably there is a mechanism to solve that 
issue, but is it really worth the effort? I would hold the compilation 
away from the production system, but I could do it on day times where 
only few ressources are needed. Also I can set PORTAGE_NICENESS.

> As far as the gcc upgrade, I haven't done it myself. Is there a
> specific reason you need the latest version? If not, then why upgrade?

I have learned that it is not possible to stay at a certain level of 
package versions. You need to follow the flow, if you want to install 
security updates. I know there are projects that want to take care of 
this issue, but I think they aren't ready, yet. So I believe it could 
only be a matter of time until you have to upgrade gcc.

Of course I could wait until it comes to that point in time. I am just 
curious about what you think about and how you handle this.

--
Timo
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