Re: Security Updates in Slackware64-14.2

On Tue, 7 Nov 2017, Robby Workman wrote:

> While it would be nice to have the installer take care of the
> post-release patches automatically if using http/ftp/localmirror
> as an installation source, after looking at the installer code,
> that is not an undertaking that I wish to inflict upon anyone,
> much less myself. :-)

How would the installer handle, for example, multiple versions of the
same package in the slackware/${subset} directory?

For example, if my tagfile for subset "n" has "bind: [ADD]" and rather
than having Slackware's update packages for bind in a "patches"
directory, I have them in "slackware/n", would the installer ...

    a) install every version found, thus overwriting most of the files
       anyway, though leaving a bit of a mess in /var/log/packages,
       and certainly leaving any files that might have been removed
       from a newer version of the package;

    b) install only the highest numbered version of the package;

    c) complain that it doesn't know what version to install;

    d) barf, or perform some other unpredictable action?

I'm referring here specifically to a new installation, using the
installer in the miniroot environment provided by booting "disc 1",
not to "installpkg" as it's installed on the system (though they may
in fact be identical; I just don't know whether they are).

Oh, that reminds me of an additional option I'd love to see in "setup":

    - use tagfiles, but prompt for new packages

I know the tagfiles option is intended to permit unattended package
installation, but new releases of the OS always have new packages
(and sometimes remove or rename some), so it always seems like I
need to install at least one system manually in order to *create* the
tagfiles in the first place, and since I have tagfiles for multiple
system "types" ("router", "server", "desktop", "laptop"), I often find
myself not bothering with the tagfiles.  It would be nice to be able to
use an existing set of tagfiles, but still handle new and/or renamed
packages, and it would be nice to be able to automatically create a
new set of tagfiles from the current contents of /var/log/packages.
Hrmmm... I guess that's yet another suggestion, though frankly I
might be able to script that one myself, if I just took the time ...

-- 
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Sylvain Robitaille                               [email protected]

Systems analyst / AITS                            Concordia University
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science   Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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