FS#35942 - Notification system to warn of known upgrade issues
Attached to Project:
Pacman
Opened by Owen Tuz (owentuz) - Wednesday, 26 June 2013, 17:01 GMT
Last edited by Andrew Gregory (andrewgregory) - Thursday, 12 March 2015, 01:55 GMT
Opened by Owen Tuz (owentuz) - Wednesday, 26 June 2013, 17:01 GMT
Last edited by Andrew Gregory (andrewgregory) - Thursday, 12 March 2015, 01:55 GMT
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Details
Can we implement some kind of "warning" flag for packages
that may require extra steps during install?
For the most recent example: https://www.archlinux.org/news/binaries-move-to-usrbin-requiring-update-intervention/ A simple "this package may cause problems, please warn the user to read the news" flag might be a more friendly way of dealing with these kinds of conflicts - hopefully without hand-holding too much? (Apologies if this has been discussed before: I couldn't find anything. At the moment, I think this is a major strike against Arch's name: it's easy to miss something that's not directly tied in to the package manager, and after each such upgrade the forums fill up with "I broke my system..." threads. I know I've personally been on the wrong end of a non-booting system before thanks to updating without first checking the site.) |
This task depends upon
Closed by Andrew Gregory (andrewgregory)
Thursday, 12 March 2015, 01:55 GMT
Reason for closing: Duplicate
Additional comments about closing: FS#27653
Thursday, 12 March 2015, 01:55 GMT
Reason for closing: Duplicate
Additional comments about closing: FS#27653
Yes, it's the same as checking the main page.
My point exactly - it still seems somewhat unfriendly having to check an external source before *every* update or risk breaking things: especially given the frequency of updates on a rolling release such as Arch.
It strikes me that a simple (and presumably optional in config?) method for saying "Hey, check the site before you touch this one" would be preferable.
Surely this fairly basic functionality should be part of Arch, though? The process I'm thinking of would be something like this:
- Packager/maintainer sets a flag that says "User needs to read the news before installing".
- Pacman reads said flag, pops up a "This update may require user intervention to install correctly. Have you read the news and/or mailing list?" message.
- User has the option to cancel and get it right if they haven't checked the news.
Otherwise, it's not a friendly approach for new users of Arch in particular: I don't think it should be necessary to break your system a few times before you learn to read the news.