rant about upgrading [was]Re: [ILUG] Debian question

[Paul O'Malley - gnu's not unix -]

Gavin McCullagh wrote:
> 
>> Is this then any different or more  reliable than the Ubuntu option of
>> doing regular dist-upgrades?
> 
> The word "reliable" is a bit subjective.
Hi,

If the word reliable is referring to dist-upgrade, this is something you 
as an administrator need to take care of and consider this and more:

How modified or customised from the debian tree is your current 
implementation.

If you are using Python / PHP / Haskell / Perl / Lisp or some such as 
part of an application, then, can you document the changes to it in the 
dist-upgrade break your application.

If you can't then should you have a second machine where you test your 
install of a fresh version while you prepare for a migration.

You should have such a machine if you are in any way dependant on your 
IT infrastructure, i.e. a testing environment.

WRT being burnt with dist upgrades know this, every time you stray from 
the original distro, every modification, will put you in a place that 
can cause you pain up to and including losing access to your data, this 
is a rare event but it depends on who and how you take advice. ;-)

BTW in DR they say, "It is not a plan until you test it!".

The same goes for all distros, the more the mods the more the risk of pain.

Blowing away an install and beginning again with a CD/DVD in hand and a 
plan could save you lots of work.

In fact a plan should save you lots of work.
Recently I had the following upgrade experiences (within the last 6 months).

FreeBSD 7.0 to 7.1 easy. (no critical apps)

Debian etch to lenny, burnt by a network driver, sorted by a cruel hack!

Ubuntu desktop dapper to hardy, for a critical operator in the home (the 
boss). Perfect.

Ubuntu Hardy to Intrepid, where's my grub gone! (very strange hardware, 
easy enough fix but a surprise none the less)

gNewSense 1.0 to 2.0 - reinstall (hey we ain't all perfect ;PPPPP)

I have lost boxes in the past due to strange and wonderful hacks that 
turned out to be more strange than wonderful.

Yay for backups, and backups of backups!

If you altering a Distro's main office suite or web browser to the 
latest version without good reason, you have stepped off the planet of 
expected good results, you are now as some say "on your own"!

What happens when you run Apache 1.3 and it is no longer supported by 
your distro or the Apache foundation, choose carefully, and don't just 
rush in where angels fear to thread.

(with a special note to cjb .. where daemons fear to multi thread :-P)

Regards,

Paul



Cheers,
Paul O'Malley