Re: Updating a large number of hosts from a binary repository

[Aleksey Cheusov <cheusov%tut.by@localhost>]

> Now comes the next quartely release. I prepare binary packages on a
> server and optionally update the list of packages I want installed on
> the clients.
For binary updates you can use pkgnih, pkgin or pkg_chk.

> Then, what's the most appropriate tool so that, after some minutes of
> inconsistency and un-usability of the clients, I have:
> 1. The most recent versions of my primary packages installed/updated
nih update
or 
nih update pkg1 pkg2 ...

> 2. The most recent versions of all dependencies (no matter whether the
> package they depend on has been updated or not)
nih update
updates everything if no packages are specified.

> 3. Preferrably have the dependencies marked as such
> (i.e. AUTOMATIC=yes)
nih cares about automatic flag.
You can also change it by running 'nih mark -u' or 'nih mark -a'.
Automatically installed leaf packages are removed recursively.

> 4. Optionally have all outdated/no-longer-used packages removed.
nih delete pkg1 pkg2 ...
Depending packages will be removed as well as automatically installed
leaf packages.

> The tricky part seems to be that even if appfoo doesn't get touched at
> all or is still happy with libbar-1.0 from the old release, I want
> libbar-1.1 from the curent release installed.
This is exactly what 
'nih update' without additional arguments does.

> My impression is that there are more tools aiming at this then I have
> time to evaluate, so any help (preferrably from the real world) is
> welcome.
You have a choice :-)

-- 
Best regards, Aleksey Cheusov.