Re: [gentoo-user] A few suggestions for emerge world via cron

[Paul Hartman]

On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 5:52 PM, Harry Putnam <reader@×××××××.com> wrote:
> First my setup:
>
> Fairly basic (newish) install (noX) in a Virtual Box vm on windows7 host
>
> I'd like to hear some of the ways you all keep up with syncing and
> update world.

I personally run it all manually and never schedule it to run unattended.

> Of course the basic call with cron is clear enough:
>
>  eix-sync
>  emerge -vuD world
>
> But what I mean is how you handle things script wise, so that when
> something doesn't compile or something else untoward happens during
> `emerge -vuD world' things don't just get jacked up.

emerge --keep-going which will abort the bad package and any packages
depending on it, but will continue emerging everything else possible.

> Also, what have users found to be good guess at how often to update
> world? (given my console mode setup, and the fact that it is not a
> server of any kind, more just a way to keep my hand in things gentoo)

I usually update every day. I have a headless mail and web server
running ~amd64 and even that sometimes goes a few days with nothing to
update. I find no harm in checking. :)

In the Windows world, once a month updates are the norm... with Gentoo
I really think updating as often as you're comfortable with is best,
because if you let a huge amount of updates happen all at once it can
get complicated to sort through them if they aren't straightforward
emerge-and-do-nothing updates. (see any of the "I'm updating a gentoo
system for the first time in a year" threads posted to this list)

On the other hand, updating too frequently can cause you to re-emerge
the same package over and over if someone is tweaking an ebuild
(especially on ~x86) and a less frequent update schedule will cause
you to miss some of the intermediate versions of the ebuild.