Joachim Schrod wrote:
suse@rio.vg wrote:
Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
YaST, YUM, RUG, APT, SYNAPTIC, SMART, etc.
Is there a good description of what each tool does that makes it unique from the others?
[good summary deleted]
One change, though:
YAST == Updates through the SuSE system, but only interactively, no cron jobs.
YOU (Yast Online Update) updates per cron job, only for SUSE packages and not for 3rd party repositories. It may be turned on in the yast2 interface. Via that interface it is only sensible to just install everything as it comes. A download-only option exists, but is not appropriate in any realistic scenario.
If one wants to download new updates, get a notification and install the update later after a manual check, one places an appropriate YOU-server in /etc/youservers and uses the following cron job:
21 4 * * * root online_update -s -d | grep INSTALL
(probably with a different time :-). This sends email notification when an update is available. The actual installation is done by
online_update -i -V
/usr/bin/online_update is not part of SuSE 10.1. As far as I can tell, there is no longer any command-line component of YOU. I think they decided to roll it all up into rug. :)
At this point, I recommend using APT for servers and just using YAST for updating desktops.
Nah, APT is good for everything. ;-) Seriously, IMHO apt is better for desktops and YOU is better for some servers: SUSE provides a good selection of server software and YOU can update that, as part of a proper release process for smaller deployments without fully-automatic installation (see above). Whereas on a desktop, one almost always has several rpm repositories: packman, usr-local, and such. YOU doesn't help a bit here; here one *needs* apt.
Well, when I think of desktop users, I'm thinking of people who aren't entirely comfortable with the command-line, nor using non-standard apps. Once they're comfortable with more customization, they don't need me to tell them which to use. :) Personally, I'm using apt in a cron even on my notebook at this point.