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

Hi,
Thanks for your responses.
Unfortunately, there's not possibility in this specific situation to be
able to update from 6.3 -> 6.8.  But, it would be nice to be able to update
specific packages to latest that's available in 6.8 repo at

 http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6/os/x86_64/Packages/


For example,

nss-util-3.21.0-2.el6.i686.rpm
<http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6/os/x86_64/Packages/nss-util-3.21.0-2.el6.i686.rpm>

2016-05-12 10:48

67K



nss-util-3.21.0-2.el6.x86_64.rpm
<http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6/os/x86_64/Packages/nss-util-3.21.0-2.el6.x86_64.rpm>

2016-05-12 10:47

67K



nss-util-devel-3.21.0-2.el6.i686.rpm
<http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6/os/x86_64/Packages/nss-util-devel-3.21.0-2.el6.i686.rpm>

2016-05-12 10:48

69K



nss-util-devel-3.21.0-2.el6.x86_64.rpm
<http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6/os/x86_64/Packages/nss-util-devel-3.21.0-2.el6.x86_64.rpm>

2016-05-12 10:48

69K



Simply updating these packages on 6.3, would there be any issues w/o
updating rest of the packages from 6.3 to 6.8? As I mentioned, 'yum
update'
or updating to latest 6.8 packages from 6.3 is not currently plausible or
even feasible for some reason.  Or, please suggest any other options to be
able to update such packages w/o updating rest of the userland on 6.3?

Thank again very much.

On Mon, 7 Nov 2016 22:33:22 -0600
Dipal Bhatt wrote:
> Simply updating these packages on 6.3, would there be any issues w/o
> updating rest of the packages from 6.3 to 6.8? 
I suppose you could try it and see what happens.  That comes with a two-part
warranty:  If it breaks, you own both pieces.

As you have been told earlier, the only way to update your system properly is to
run this command:

yum update

After that you will have the latest version of Centos 6 on your system.

Anything other method will leave you with a system that is definitely insecure
and probably broken.

-- 
MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Real D 3D Digital Cinema ~ www.melvilletheatre.com

Thanks Frank and all.
Understood, but unfortunately, updating to latest version of CentOs 6 is
not the option in this specific situation, in stead, we are taking a look
into options of updating only hand picked packages on Centos 6.3 to
latest.  Any other guidance is welcome and appreciated.



On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 10:47 PM, Frank Cox <theatre at
melvilletheatre.com>
wrote:
> On Mon, 7 Nov 2016 22:33:22 -0600
> Dipal Bhatt wrote:
>
> > Simply updating these packages on 6.3, would there be any issues w/o
> > updating rest of the packages from 6.3 to 6.8?
>
> I suppose you could try it and see what happens.  That comes with a
> two-part warranty:  If it breaks, you own both pieces.
>
> As you have been told earlier, the only way to update your system properly
> is to run this command:
>
> yum update
>
> After that you will have the latest version of Centos 6 on your system.
>
> Anything other method will leave you with a system that is definitely
> insecure and probably broken.
>
> --
> MELVILLE THEATRE ~ Real D 3D Digital Cinema ~ www.melvilletheatre.com
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>

On 11/7/2016 8:33 PM, Dipal Bhatt wrote:
> Unfortunately, there's not possibility in this specific situation to be
able to update from 6.3 -> 6.8.
any such external specifications that insist you run an old obsolete 
operating system are inherently broken.   I hope this server isn't 
connected to the internet, and isn't providing any services to untrusted 
users.

any RHEL/CentOS 6 compatible applications you have that work on 6.3 that 
won't work on 6.8 are broken.

  * 6.8's kernel is is still 2.6.32, same as 6.3.
  * 6.8's glibc is still 2.12
  * 6.8's php is still 5.3
  * 6.8's mysql is still 5.1
  * 6.8's postgresql is still 8.4
  * 6.8's perl is still 5.10
  * 6.8's python is still 2.6.6
  * etc etc.

all of these components have security and bug fixes from later releases 
backported to them.


-- 
john r pierce, recycling bits in santa cruz

On Mon, Nov 7, 2016 at 11:12 PM, John R Pierce <pierce at hogranch.com>
wrote:
> On 11/7/2016 8:33 PM, Dipal Bhatt wrote:
>
>> Unfortunately, there's not possibility in this specific situation
to be
>> able to update from 6.3 -> 6.8.
>>
>
> any such external specifications that insist you run an old obsolete
> operating system are inherently broken.   I hope this server isn't
> connected to the internet, and isn't providing any services to
untrusted
> users.
>
> any RHEL/CentOS 6 compatible applications you have that work on 6.3 that
> won't work on 6.8 are broken.
>
>  * 6.8's kernel is is still 2.6.32, same as 6.3.
>  * 6.8's glibc is still 2.12
>  * 6.8's php is still 5.3
>  * 6.8's mysql is still 5.1
>  * 6.8's postgresql is still 8.4
>  * 6.8's perl is still 5.10
>  * 6.8's python is still 2.6.6
>  * etc etc.
>
> all of these components have security and bug fixes from later releases
> backported to them.

Excellent, and thanks John to clarify the above compatibility factor.  It
seems,  any application that strictly depends on the 6.3 packages must not
be updated to 6.8.  And, outside of that dependency, I gather it should be
safe to update any hand picked packages to the latest is my understanding
here. It seems, in general RHEL tries to maintain ABI level compatibility
but they may not be perfect and they may only test with the packages set
current at the time.  So, it's worth testing and possibly updating to 6.8
packages where there's serious security fixes or such.  But, yes,
there's
no way to update the 6.3 to 6.8 as I repeatedly mentioned which is the only
requirement/constraint.

Thanks again!