Subject: Re: how to update packages in production
To: Zafer Aydogan <zafer@aydogan.de>
From: Roland Illig <rillig@NetBSD.org>
List: pkgsrc-users
Date: 11/07/2007 10:08:01
Zafer Aydogan wrote:
> hello list,
> 
> My company would consider to switch to NetBSD with their hosting, if
> following ciriterias are met:
> 
> - Is it possible to update the apache webserver without interrupting
> the running httpd service during the update ?
> - Is it  possible to update mysql without interrupting the mysql
> service during the update ?
> - Is it possible to install, add, remove modules for php without
> interrupting remaining services ?
> 
> and if, how ?

By using binary packages, the critical services can be kept online 
during an update. (At least I think so.) I am using a chrooted pbulk for 
building the packages.

There is a big problem left: "pkg_add -u" (for updating binary packages) 
behaves very badly when something goes wrong (see PR 37277). This needs 
to be fixed before binary packages can be used in reliable environments. 
Maybe using "pkg_add -uu" helps a bit, but it looks even more risky to me.

Roland