port update problem - newbie

[Kent Stewart]

On Monday 24 January 2005 09:52 pm, saravanan ganapathy wrote:
> --- Kent Stewart <kstewart at owt.com> wrote:
> > On Monday 24 January 2005 05:11 am, saravanan
> >
> > ganapathy wrote:
> > > --- Tabor Kelly
> > >
> > > <tkelly-freebsd-questions at taborandtashell.net>
> >
> > wrote:
> > > > saravanan ganapathy wrote:
> > > >
> > > > <snip>
> > > >
> > > > > --- Erik Norgaard <norgaard at locolomo.org>
> >
> > wrote:
> > > > > Since I am very new to freebsd, I am not sure
> >
> > abt
> >
> > > > the
> > > >
> > > > > ports collections which I don't want.
> > > >
> > > > Since you are new, I will give you some (ports)
> > > > advice:
> > > >
> > > > 1. Always update all of your ports so that you
> >
> > can
> >
> > > > use portupgrade.
> > > > 2. Use portupgrade.
> > > > 3. Read /usr/ports/UPDATING if you want things
> >
> > to go
> >
> > > > smoothly.
> > > > 4. If you forget step 3, and step 3 happens to
> >
> > have
> >
> > > > some bad news in it
> > > > (usually pertaining to gettext), 'portupgrade
> >
> > -rRf
> >
> > > > [some port]' can work
> > > > wonders.
> > > > 5. Don't forget to do a 'portsdb -uU' after
> > > > cvsup'ing your ports.
> > > >
> > > > My quick start to portupgrade:
>
> http://tabor.taborandtashell.net/serversetup/ports.html
>
> > > > Where I learned about portupgrade:
>
> http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2003/08/28/FreeBSD_Basics.html
>
> > > The above link was very useful to me and I 've
> >
> > learnt
> >
> > > the portupgrade procedure.
> > >
> > > I am also looking for package management. I know
> >
> > that
> >
> > > a package can be installed using 'pkg_add -r
> > > sendmail'. But how to keep update these packages
> >
> > like
> >
> > > ports?
> > >
> > > I need to choose either ports or packages.
> >
> > Why? Either is an appropriate method of updating.
> > Maintaining the ports
> > using something like portupgrade is frequently
> > faster because you can
> > update the port as soon as it is changed. With a
> > package, you have to
> > wait until the package has been built and moved to
> > the mirrors. If a
> > package is available, you save a lot of cpu usage on
> > slow machines. In
> > order to use current versions, both require
> > maintaining an uptodate
> > port structure. You just have to determine which
> > method is an optimum
> > for your usage.
>
> I have some doubts in port upgrade
>
> 1) I think that if I upgrade a port, first the current
> package will be removed and then new package will be
> installed.Let us assume that I am running a web server
> and apache needs to be upgraded. In this case, if the
> current apache is removed and the new apache 'll be
> installed, then what abt my existing configuration?
> What abt the down time?

Well, you have to kill apache to stop the httpd processes. The problem 
with apache is that the install creates its own /usr/local/www/data 
link. If you use apache, you can create something like 
ln -sf /.../data data. 
Then, you can upgrade apache. The install is very fast and I immediately 
unlink the link that the apache install created and link to my data 
directory. I have all of my web data on /usr2/data. The link 
to /usr2/data is gone for less than 30 seconds.

Then, you need to stopapache and startapache. There has to be many 
choices on the order of doing things. You aren't running the updated 
apache until you do the down/up toggle. Your downtime will only be a 
couple of minutes and apache goes down gracefully. Toggling apache is 
less than 30 seconds on my slow system. I think my web server is down 
for less than 2 minutes from the time the upgrade destroys my data link 
until everything is back in order and is using the new version of 
apache. Network congestion can cause problems longer than that :).

>
> 2) What is the best method to upgrade ports without
> any downtime for my live servers?

There isn't any to my way of thinking. You have to stop the process and 
restart it. Some processes you can "kill -HUP" but ports are mostly 
different. You can reduce the down time to a small number but there 
will be a period when that process won't be available. 

One of the problem with live databases is that management thinks they 
need to be up 24x7. You need to be able to do maintenance and you may 
have to schedule downtime. For security reasons, you may not want to 
wait for a component failure to do the upgrades :). 

FWIW, everyone I have known that was involved with system work did their 
upgrades on weekends or between 2 am and 6 am. Hollidays are also handy 
times for upgrading.

>
> 3) Even after upgraded my all ports, 'portaudit' says
> still problem with 'perl'.So what should I do?

I don't have any suggestion. Perl 5.8.5 just showed up on the list. I 
already have cups-base, mozilla, and linux-tiff. I don't have any 
daemon processes that use perl. Is it something you really have to 
worry about at this moment.

Kent
>
> Please suggest me
>

-- 
Kent Stewart
Richland, WA

http://users.owt.com/kstewart/index.html