[lug] Debian update

[Nate Duehr]

On Sep 26, 2007, at 3:45 PM, Gary Hodges wrote:

> I have a remote machine (phone connection only) that I will be  
> visiting next week.  I'm going to update the OS (Debian Sarge)  
> while I'm there. I have the most recent Sarge on DVD, 3.1r6.  I  
> know there have been several updates since 3.1r6 was released back  
> in April.  What would be the easiest way to find all the updates so  
> I can complete the machine update from CD/DVD rather than over the  
> modem?

Hmmm... you'd need a list of the packages in 3.1r6 and then you'd  
compare to the updates on security.debian.org's http/ftp package  
repositories.

The problem is... you'd have to parse Packages.gz (or Packages.bz2)  
and then follow the package naming standard down into the /debian- 
security/pool/updates/main "pool" where everything is stored by name,  
not by distro.  The distro-specific directories just contain the  
package lists that are "released" by the security team for those  
distros.

I wonder...

Perhaps jigdo has a feature to include updates... you could re-spin  
your own "current" CD perhaps.  You'd have to ask the jigdo folks if  
they have a feature that would do that...

Otherwise, it sounds like a pretty manual process.

Oops, there's the answer right there, on http://cdimage.debian.org...

"Download CD/DVD images with jigdo.  The "jigdo" scheme allows you to  
pick the fastest out of 300 Debian mirrors worldwide for your  
download. It features easy mirror selection and "upgrading" of older  
images to the latest release. Also, it is the only way to download  
Debian DVD images for all architectures."

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Debian-Jigdo/ - Has instructions on how to  
make an image and then update it, according to the Jigdo site.

Other than that, if you're not subscribed to Debian-Security- 
Announce, you won't have a reference that's "easy" to know "what  
changed?" after the security release... without parsing through  
everything.

--
Nate Duehr
nate at natetech.com