Keeping Linux up to date with AutoUpdateI find the easiest way to keep a Red Hat system up to date is to use a package called AutoUpdate, available athttp://www.mat.univie.ac.at/~gerald/ftp/autoupdate/ AutoUpdate will automatically compare all of the RPMs (software packages) installed on your system to an archive of all the updates that have been released for your version of Linux. Then it will automatically download and update all updated RPMs. AutoUpdate requires perl-DB_File, so you may need to download that first.
For Red Hat Linux 8.0, you can get the perl-DB_File RPM from:
For Red Hat Linux 9, you can get the perl-DB_File RPM from:
Download the autoupdate RPM and configuration files RPM for Red Hat from:
All of the following steps need to be done as root. Now you edit the configuration files in /etc/autoupdate.d. to use a local linux mirror and any preferences you want to change.
Using your favorite text editor, edit redhat.dld, changing:
And in redhat.get, change:
If you want AutoUpdate to perform kernel updates, then in
autoupdate.conf, change: Old kernels will not be removed, so you can still boot from the old kernel if you wish. The boot manager, typically GRUB, will be updated, although the new kernel will not be selected by default at boot time. You can change the default selection in /etc/grub.conf. If anything goes wrong, it's a good idea to have an emergency boot disk.
Now, to update all with newly available RPMs,type Run autodld whenever you'd like to get the latest updates for your operating system, or you can set up a cron entry to check for updates daily.
If there is a new RPM you would like you install, for instance the OpenSSH server, you can download and install the RPM with the command: Questions? Please contact help@life.uiuc.edu. |