Re: [gentoo-user] a question about emerge --sync

[Dale]

Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
> Am 02.08.2014 09:17, schrieb Dale:
>> Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
>>> Am 01.08.2014 16:30, schrieb behrouz khosravi:
>>>> Hello everybody.
>>>> I have a little bandwidth problem. I don't want to update my packages
>>>> very frequently.
>>>> Is it save to sync my portage not very often, say every month or two,
>>>> so when I install something I wont be warned that some of my packages
>>>> are outdated?
>>>> In this manner I wont need to mask my packages, to prevent them from
>>>> updating, right ?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks.
>>>>
>>>> .
>>>>
>>> the longer you wait, the more problems you will have.
>>>
>>>
>>> So sync often.
>>>
>>> Installing the actual updates? On a weekly basis is a good rule of thumb.
>>>
>>> And don't use --pretend, use --ask. Portage has become slow as f....
>>> over time. You don't want to waste time to let it do the same twice.
>>>
>>> Also: read the manual. You obviously haven't - or did not understand
>>> everything you read, so read again. For your own safety.
>>>
>>>
>> Back when I was on dial-up, I did my updates on Monday I think it was.
>> In the case of OOo, just downloading the tarball could take a couple
>> days.  Once a week is pretty good in my opinion as well.  I'd be nervous
>> about going months tho.  On occasion that can get to be a bit much.  If
>> two nasty updates hit at the same time, it could get touchy.
>>
>> Dale
>>
>> :-)  :-)
>>
>> .
>>
> back when I was responsible to keep 250 net-junkies online, the longer I
> waited the worse the problems. And you only have so much time between
> different WoW raids...
>
>


True.  I think the official claim is that once a year updates are
supported.  However, we have seen people that wait that long, and
sometimes not even that long, and encounter a update process that deals
with two or three deal breakers.  I can't recall the package names but I
know a couple packages can be a hair puller on their own.  When you add
in two of them at the same time, it gets bad really fast.   So you make
a good point. 

That is the reason I wanted to do updates about every week when I was on
dial-up.  I might would go two weeks at times.  Now that I have DSL, I
update usually twice a week.  If I am expecting say a upgrade of KDE in
between, I may add one that week or just shuffle my schedule to make it
include the KDE upgrades.  I have found that the twice a week updates
are usually easier than the weekly ones when I was on dial-up.  The
improvements in portage could account for some of that but still,
avoiding having two major changes at the same time is a good idea.   The
devs do seem to try and spread those apart a little anyway.  They can't
hold them forever tho. 

While every day may be a bit much, waiting months has its own issues. 
Then again, someone missing their WoW game may be a issue of its own.
They may get . . . angry.  LOL 

Dale

:-)  :-)