Keeping your Linux Computer Up-to-Date

Here are the high-lights of check-rpms:

• check-rpms compares installed RPM packages (listed by the command "rpm -qa") on a Linux system with an up-to-date distribution. That distribution may either reside in a local directory (possibly NFS mounted) or on a ftp server (typically in the updates directories). Packages in the up-to-date distribution that are found to be newer than the installed rpm packages are listed.

• you can configure check-rpms (using the configuration file) to use either the patched Linux distributions on sphinx.sfu.ca (RedHat 7.3, 9.0, SuSE 9.0) or any ftp server that provides the updates directories for your particular version of RedHat, SuSE or Fedora.

• since you can use ftp servers check-rpms will work on your machine at home as well. The ftp server to be used can be set in the configuration file or on the command line. The configuration file that is included in the rpm package sets the ftp server to "updates.redhat.com". In Canada you may want to change the settings for RedHat to

  $FTPSERVER = "mirror.cpsc.ucalgary.ca";
  $FTPUPDATES = "mirror/fedoralegacy.org/redhat/<version>/updates";
  

  for RedHat 7.3 you also can use our SFU updates from

  $FTPSERVER = "ftp.sfu.ca";
  $FTPUPDATES = "pub/linux/7.3";
  

  for SuSE to

  $FTPSERVER = "ftp.nrc.ca";
  $FTPUPDATES = "pub/systems/linux/suse/suse/i386/update/<version>/rpm";
  

  and for Fedora to

  $FTPSERVER = "ftp.nrc.ca";
  $FTPUPDATES = "pub/systems/linux/redhat/fedora/linux/core/updates/<version>";
  

  This usually gives you much better performance (<version> must be replaced with the actual version that you are using. If in doubt, the command "cat /etc/<distro>-release" will tell you with <distro> being "redhat", "SuSE", or "fedora").

• If you want to use ftp servers you must have the ncftp package installed.

• For machines on campus, it is strongly recommended to use the RedHat distributions on sphinx: this will result in much better performance. In order to use the the distributions on sphinx the corresponding directories must be mounted on your machine. It is recommended to use the following method [you must become root first (su) in order to perform the following tasks]:
  • edit the /etc/fstab file and add the following line to the end of the file:

    sphinx.sfu.ca:/vol/vol0/distrib/<distro>/<version>  /mnt/<distro>  nfs  noauto,ro,hard,intr,bg,nfsvers=3,tcp,rsize=32768 0 0
    

    where <distro> must be replaced with the name of your distribution (suse, redhat, fedora, sfu) and <version> must be replaced with the actual version of your distribution. Note that updates for RedHat 7.3 after Dec. 31, 2003 are found in the "sfu/1.0" distribution, not under "redhat/7.3" on sphinx. You must create the /mnt/<distro> directory before you can mount the distribution.
  • If you have difficulties with the network connection to sphinx (e.g., as soon as you try to access files from sphinx your computer freezes or installations such as rpm -Fvh /mnt/redhat/RedHat/RPMS/openssh-3.5p1-11.i386.rpm take forever to complete) you can try the following setting instead:

    sphinx.sfu.ca:/vol/vol0/distrib/<distro>/<version>  /mnt/<distro>  nfs  noauto,ro,hard,intr,bg,nfsvers=3,udp,rsize=1024 0 0
    

  • In case you are using the ipchains firewall it must be configured so that sphinx.sfu.ca is let through: edit the file /etc/sysconfig/ipchains so that it contains the following lines:

    -A input -s 142.58.101.248 -d 0/0 -p udp -j ACCEPT
    -A input -s 142.58.101.248 -d 0/0 -p tcp -j ACCEPT
    

    The iptables configuration is similar. These lines must appear before the final two lines that specify the default reject policy. You must restart ipchains, "/etc/rc.d/init.d/ipchains restart", to activate the changes.
  • Make sure that portmapper is running: "ps -ef | grep portmap" should show a line that looks like

    rpc        969     1  0 Jan16 ?        00:00:00 portmap
    

    If portmap is not running start it: /etc/rc.d/init.d/portmap start. If it was not running you may want to activate its startup script in /etc/rc.d/rc3.d or /etc/rc.d/rc5.d: after changing to that directory create the appropriate link to the startup script in /etc/rc.d/init.d by typing

    ln -s ../init.d/portmap S13portmap
    

  • Since portmap is tcp-wrapped you must have a line

    portmap : sphinx.sfu.ca
    

    in your /etc/hosts.allow file (you should have the single line "ALL : ALL" in your /etc/hosts.deny file).
  • Mount the directory using the command

    mount /mnt/<distro>
    

  • Now you find all rpm packages

    for SuSE in: /mnt/suse/suse/i586
    for RedHat in: /mnt/redhat/RedHat/RPMS
    for Fedora in: /mnt/fedora/Fedora/RPMS
    for SFU in: /mnt/sfu/RPMS

    You should set the $RPMDIR variable in your /usr/local/etc/check-rpms.conf file to this directory.
    The SFU directory contains updates for RedHat 7.3 after Dec. 31, 2003.

• check-rpms does version checking, i.e., it does not assumes that the rpm packages on sphinx or on a ftp server is newer. This version checking (which uses a lexical sort algorithm on the version and release strings) will give the correct result in 99% of all cases. However, no program on earth will ever be able to decide whether version 1.2b is newer or older than version 1.2. In those cases the users must make the decision themselves. check-rpms provides options -lq and -r that provide additional information and guidance in these cases.

• The --update option of check-rpms allows you to update all rpm packages for which a newer version was found.
  It is strongly recommended to run check-rpms first with the -v -lq or the -v -r options, before running it with the --update option!
  You have been warned.

• check-rpms comes with a man page. Read it.

Download

"Binary" rpm: check-rpms-3.0.2-1.noarch.rpm (installs into /usr/local)

Alternatively you can copy this package from the sfu directory on sphinx:
sphinx.sfu.ca:/vol/vol0/distrib/sfu/1.0/RPMS/check-rpms-3.0.2-1.noarch.rpm

Source rpm: check-rpms-3.0.2-1.src.rpm

Comments, Bug-Reports