Topic: How to find out what what an update is for?

[pizzaco]

As you know, we get updates on regular basis. When I get the notification email that lists the updates, I have difficulty assessing how critical the updates are. Some are bugs fixes and others fix major security issues. I don't know if need to schedule an emergency update, or if it can wait until a more convenient time.

Currently, I just Google the package name and version and stumble around until I find something that seems to be applicable to the update. Is there a canonical source I can go to just lookup each update to see what it does?

Example of notification email mentioned above:

at.x86_64                           3.1.8-84.el5_11.1                    updates
krb5-libs.x86_64                    1.6.1-80.el5_11                      updates
tzdata.x86_64                       2014h-2.el5                          updates

[guest22]

pizzaco,

good question and I wondered myself a few times too for obvious reasons.

You can install yum-changelog (and dependencies) from the default repo's:
yum install yum-changelog python-dateutil

and to see the latest changelog on an RPM that is available:

 yum changelog 01-01-2014 at

That will show you the change log for the "at" package since January 1st, 2014
or


 yum changelog all updates at |less


to browse the complete change log of the at package.


HTH


guest



edit: formatting is messy, can't get it right. I'll setup a wiki page.

[guest22]

FYI: http://wiki.contribs.org/Yum-changelog

[Stefano]

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/redhat-fedora-centos-linux-yum-installs-security-updates/

there's an interesting yum's plugin.. just tested a bit, but it seems not supported by centos (I have an unexposed test vm with SME8.1 and bash update is not detected..)

it's a pity..

[pizzaco]

FYI: http://wiki.contribs.org/Yum-changelog

Thanks!
I installed the changelog package and its dependency. I then ran this command, thinking it would give me the change log for the available update of the at package:

Code: [Select]

yum update at  --changelog
Turns out that it actually updated the at package (I did give it a 'y' when it asked to download). I don't see any change log in the output, though either:

Code: [Select]

Loaded plugins: changelog, fastestmirror, protect-packages, smeserver
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
 * base: mirror.es.its.nyu.edu
 * smeaddons: mirror.canada.pialasse.com
 * smeextras: mirror.canada.pialasse.com
 * smeos: mirror.canada.pialasse.com
 * smeupdates: mirror.canada.pialasse.com
 * updates: mirror.raystedman.net
Excluding Packages from CentOS - os
Finished
Excluding Packages from CentOS - updates
Finished
Setting up Update Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package at.x86_64 0:3.1.8-84.el5_11.1 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Changes in packages about to be updated:

at-3.1.8-84.el5_11.1.x86_64

Dependencies Resolved

================================================================================
 Package     Arch            Version                     Repository        Size
================================================================================
Updating:
 at          x86_64          3.1.8-84.el5_11.1           updates           58 k

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install       0 Package(s)
Upgrade       1 Package(s)

Total download size: 58 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
at-3.1.8-84.el5_11.1.x86_64.rpm                          |  58 kB     00:00
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Updating       : at                                                       1/2
  Cleanup        : at                                                       2/2

Updated:
  at.x86_64 0:3.1.8-84.el5_11.1

Complete!

Did I do something wrong?

[guest22]

Nope, the at package apparently comes without a change log. Bad example.