Re: [vox] Zen and the Art of System Maintenance

[Don Werve <donw@examen.coMAPSm>]

On Thu, Mar 28, 2002 at 06:10:40PM -0800, Steven Peck wrote:
> You know, I've actually wondered that sometimes myself.  I have a remote
> shell account on a friends Linux box that is very handy sometimes.  Now
> I use X-Window over ssh to get to it.  He hasn't updated Mozilla for a
> WHILE.  It was convient for me to download and set up the newer version
> for myself in my home directory for my own use till he gets around to
> updating it.

You're the kind of user us admins like; you let us know when you have a 
problem, and instead of flailing around like a landed salmon, you work 
around it without demanding us to work faster or give you root access.

Kudos from a guy who does maintain production envrionments. *grin*

> So, from a general system point, I suspose it would be better to
> 'upgrade' the package for 'all users' even if you are the only one.  You
> never know when you are going to have company and want to setup an
> account for them to browse the web and get their email and such.
> 
> Then again, this is only an observation.  I don't admin Linux systems in
> a work envirnment.

Depends on the type of package.  If it's something like a JBoss server or a 
PHP install that a production website (for external clients) depends on, then
the upgrade process is going to be slow (as to make sure that the production
systems don't break).  For large user applications, I build them (from source),
and install them in '/usr/local'.  That way, I can build a new copy of the 
app, leave the old one around, and migrate users one-by-one without much 
difficulty.

System-level crap, like glibc and openssh, gets handled by apt. *grin*

-- 
Don Werve <donw@examen.com>
Unix System Administrator

Damnat quod non intelligunt.
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