Re: PostgreSQL upgrade will require Pre-Depends dependency
On Sat, 14 Mar 1998, Oliver Elphick wrote:
> =?iso-8859-1?Q?Nicol=E1s_Lichtmaier?= wrote:
> > IMHO using packages for this is horribly broken. You should be
> > able to solve this just by using simple maintainer scripts.
>
> The problem is that a different version of the binaries is needed to
> do the dump, but by the time the package knows that a dump is needed,
> those binaries have already been deleted.
>
> If the user is highly organised, there is no need for all this, but
> we have to cope with the situation of a large number of packages that
> are all being upgraded at once; few users can keep on top of all the
> implications, so the packaging system should cope.
>
> If you can suggest a better way, please do!
imo, a better way is to do nothing but document the procedure for
the user....i.e. the way you did it for the postgres95 to postgresql
upgrade.
some system admin tasks require the user to stop and think about what
they're doing - brainless autopilot mode just won't work. no amount of
scripting is going to substitute for an alert human mind.
the only thing that dpkg needs to support this is a way for packages
to Hold themselves at install time. 'dpkg --set-hold-status' and 'dpkg
--clear-hold-status' or something like that.
this would put a slight obstacle in the way of the autopilot
"administrator" - they've got to unhold the packages in dselect before
they will upgrade...which should make them stop and think about why the
packages are held and maybe even <gasp!> read the upgrade notes.
the upgrade notes could be as simple as saying "run this shell script
which will dump your database(s) and then use dpkg to upgrade the
postgresql packages, and then re-create and populate your databases with
the dumped data". some things are better handled outside of dselect.
BTW, a command line hold/unhold tool would be generally useful too - a
lot safer than editing /var/lib/dpkg/status with vi.
craig
--
craig sanders
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