Date: Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:03:17 -0700 From: perryh@pluto.rain.com (Perry Hutchison) To: d@delphij.net Cc: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Subject: Re: non-destructive ports/packages update Message-ID: <51733ad5.jgrImeJZdbQoq4dt%perryh@pluto.rain.com> In-Reply-To: <51723A51.20401@delphij.net> References: <517236fe.7AoqFIleDJvljza6%perryh@pluto.rain.com> <51723A51.20401@delphij.net>
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Xin Li <delphij@delphij.net> wrote: > On 4/19/13 11:34 PM, Perry Hutchison wrote: > > I'm looking for a way to move everything connected with ports and > > packages aside, so that I can start fresh but with the ability to > > easily roll it back when things go badly (as they surely will). > > > > I have in mind to something like this: > > > > # cd /usr > > # mkdir old > > # mv ports local old > > # mkdir ports local > > # cd /var/db > > # mkdir old > > # mv ports pkg old > > # mkdir ports pkg > > > > Is there anything else that needs to be saved before fetching a > > new ports tree and starting to build things (or install prebuilt > > packages)? > > If you use ZFS, it's possible to take snapshot, then install new > ports, then if something blows up, you can rollback. > > With UFS, it's still possible to take snapshot but rollback is not > atomic. I'm aware of filesystem snapshots, but I only want to checkpoint the ports and packages, not the whole filesystem -- a rollback needs to be fast, easy, and obviously correct; preserve the failure logs; and not undo changes that may have been made elsewhere in the meantime. (BTW I don't use ZFS: the machine doesn't have enough memory, and to me ZFS -- especially on 8.x -- doesn't yet seem sufficiently proven.) > If you use portmaster, it can save packages (I think portupgrade > can do it too). But this approach depends on the fact that the > port is well written, and is not atomic in terms of package set. And then a rollback requires re-installing the saved packages, which is surely slower than moving a few directories and/or files around. The question is, what (if anything) else -- besides /usr/ports, /usr/local, /var/db/ports, and /var/db/pkg -- needs to be checkpointed?
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