Do we need this crap on LWN?
Do we need this crap on LWN?
Posted Feb 22, 2007 8:17 UTC (Thu) by bojan (subscriber, #14302)In reply to: Do we need this crap on LWN? by k8to
Parent article: ESR's goodbye note
AFAIK, this is a kernel feature. As long as there is something using an inode, the kernel won't let go. So, existing programs are OK and new ones pick up the new stuff. Upgrading things like glibc is safe with RPM in my experience (although you can have unexpected trouble if you update components of X11 while running yum from an X11 session, as X11 may die on update).
However, from the thread, I gather that ESR booted his box without that crucial library. And or course, the system was hosed.
Posted Feb 22, 2007 14:03 UTC (Thu)
by k8to (guest, #15413)
[Link] (2 responses)
Maybe it got fixed in the 5 years or so since I gave up SuSE, but I assumed it had not given your above comments.
I concur the problem here was rm important-file.
Posted Feb 22, 2007 14:05 UTC (Thu)
by k8to (guest, #15413)
[Link]
Posted Feb 22, 2007 20:07 UTC (Thu)
by bojan (subscriber, #14302)
[Link]
Going back to something like Red Hat Linux 7.2, this worked just fine. Upgraded glibc (remotely) many times. I honestly cannot remember before that...
Right, the inode-based filesystem makes this (mostly) transparent. But rpm's approach to file updates (used to) prevent the update of base libraries from being achievable on running systems.Do we need this crap on LWN?
Oh, and I've certainly updated X from 6.8 through 7.1 while running it without a hitch. I'm still convinced dpkg handles this slightly better. But it may just be prejudice on my part.Do we need this crap on LWN?
> But rpm's approach to file updates (used to) prevent the update of base libraries from being achievable on running systems.Do we need this crap on LWN?