CentOS - Nov 2016 - CentOS 6.3 packages updates options without upgrading.

Thanks very much, understood.  so, it seems, upgrading selected packages is
probably going to be fine except where the compatibility matters where it
would break all kinds of things.  Something of such nature of request would
need to be internally tested by simply updating the selected packages, test
the applications previously running on 6.3 w/ these few selected 6.8
packages updates.  It seems, the answer is to try and see whether works or
breaks.  of course, currently, no way to update system properly to latest,
hence further inquiries.  Really appreciated some helpful pointers. Thanks
kindly.

On Tue, Nov 8, 2016 at 12:02 AM, William Warren <hescominsoon at
gmail.com>
wrote:
> Yes you would break all kinds of things.  In a nutshell folks are saying
> you are free to try but when it blows up...you better have a total backup
> to restore the entire box.  Your first priority should be getting whatever
> is holding you back from proper system updates and security out of the way.
>
> On Nov 8, 2016 00:59, "Dipal Bhatt" <dipal.bhatt at
gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > The specs may have certain dependency on subset of 6.3 packages, but
not
> > for all other packages/binaries, as I mentioned earlier.  So, to keep
> > things rather intact, we would simply meet requirements by only
updating
> > "selected packages only".  And, for now, that should be
considered
> > intermittent solution until we can safely land to a proper job as you
> > mentioned.  So, would there be any issue by upgrading "selected
only
> > packages" temporarily?  For example, only updating nss-util or
openssl to
> > 6.8 version.  Thanks all, appreciated very much.
> >
> > On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 11:43 PM, Frank Cox <theatre at
melvilletheatre.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > On Mon, 7 Nov 2016 23:33:56 -0600
> > > Dipal Bhatt wrote:
> > >
> > > > But, yes, there's
> > > > no way to update the 6.3 to 6.8 as I repeatedly mentioned
which is
> the
> > > only
> > > > requirement/constraint.
> > >
> > > It occurs to me to ask what you consider to be version 6.3.  If
you
> > update
> > > any of the rpms to the 6.8 version you are no longer running
version
> 6.3.
> > > If the spec requires 6.3 and nothing else, then you will no
longer be
> > > compatible with the spec as soon as you install the first 6.8
rpm.
> > >
> > > On the other hand, if you are allowed to install 6.8 rpms, then
what's
> > > keeping you back from doing a proper job instead of a halfway and
> > > half-assed one?
> > >
> > > Upgrading "selected packages only" will leave you with
something that's
> > > neither fish or fowl, and it won't meet your requirements as
stated
> > either.
> > >
> > > --
> > > MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Real D 3D Digital Cinema ~
www.melvilletheatre.com
> > > _______________________________________________
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> > > CentOS at centos.org
> > > https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
> > >
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> >
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>

On Tue, 2016-11-08 at 00:14 -0600, Dipal Bhatt wrote:
> Thanks very much, understood.  so, it seems, upgrading selected packages is
> probably going to be fine except where the compatibility matters where it
> would break all kinds of things.
Please be realistic and professional. You simply can not run a
professional business computer operating system like Centos with some
packages so old they are probably a major security risk and other
packages up-to-date.

What will your customer or user say when they discover their data has
been hacked or corrupted simply because someone did not want to
incorporate the latest safe versions of packages already installed ?

If your car is recalled to fit a better and safer version of an already
installed component, are you really going to refuse ? 

Your stance is very unwise and misinformed.


-- 
Regards,

Paul.
England, EU.      England's place is in the European Union.

P.S. Good Luck Hillary.

Am 08.11.2016 um 07:14 schrieb Dipal Bhatt <dipal.bhatt at
gmail.com>:
> Thanks very much, understood.  so, it seems, upgrading selected packages is
> probably going to be fine except where the compatibility matters where it
> would break all kinds of things.

Let me rephrase it, to be clear. Its NOT fine to update selected packages. 
Especially a mixture of 6.3 and 6.8 packages is completely untested and
therefore considered as unstable. 

Please communicate what is exactly pinning you on 6.3. CentOS is for example 
not Fedora, where updates can break things. Its for the most cases absolutely 
save to continue updating CentOS to the latest and the only supported version 
inside the major release e.g. version 6. 

Upstream's release notes will list changes that are important between the
minor releases
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en/red-hat-enterprise-linux/?version=6/

> Something of such nature of request would
> need to be internally tested by simply updating the selected packages, test
> the applications previously running on 6.3 w/ these few selected 6.8
> packages updates.  It seems, the answer is to try and see whether works or
> breaks.  of course, currently, no way to update system properly to latest,
> hence further inquiries.  Really appreciated some helpful pointers. Thanks
> kindly.


Show us this "no way to update system properly" to get a clear big
picture
that is allowing us to provide you with potentially better solutions. 

--
LF

>
>
>
> Show us this "no way to update system properly" to get a clear
big picture
> that is allowing us to provide you with potentially better solutions.
>
Thanks really Leon very much w/ a very resourceful info. esp release notes
helps across minor versions.  So, this is for a friend of mine, and I have
been told that they will not currently consider updating their userland
from 6.3 to 6.8 but only selected few packages.  The picture seems to be
that their company runs a lot of apps on 6.3 userland and might have some
specific dependencies, etc., but more importantly, this environment has
been running in customers' environment for quite some time esp 1000s of
customers, so updating system properly is not easily feasible for this
scenario.  However, they can hand pick packages seem fit for update that
can be pushed out using their internal code fixes and updates for end
users. SO, this seems to be the problem of trying to hand pick certain
packages to be updated, if feasible w/o much adverse effects.