Re: how to determine need to upgrade

[Diego Julian Remolina <dijuremo@math.gatech.edu>]

Hi Markus,

This is just a suggestion but you may already know about it.  It is
applicable to any software and not only openldap and it does not answer
your original question about how to determine if you need to upgrade.

I use epkg from www.encap.org.  It allows you to have multiple versions of
the same software installed on the filesystem and then you can switch
versions really fast.  For example, with all the latest security breaches
in samba, I have packages from even 2.2.2 all the way up to the latest
stable 2.2.8a all installed in my server.  If for any reason I wanted to
switch back (which would be unreasonable unless the latest is not working
fine) I just need to type epkg -i samba-VERSION_I_WANT, restart samba
server and that's it.

That is what I use right now and works like a charm. I always keep install
notes and everytime there is a new version of software is very easy to get
it compiled.  You can epkg the new one in and test it for a couple of
minutes and if it breaks then epkg it out and restore your working
version.

The epkg web site has awesome FAQs and explains how to set it up and use
it.

Also, I know there is a lot of people that says "If it works, Why Upgrade"
but I rather stay with the latest and greatest because if you let time
pass by at the end it may be more difficult to make a major version
change on the long run, than to update often and make sure small changes
on the code do not break your apps.....

Diego

On Fri, 11 Apr 2003 Markus.Krogemann@team-konzept.de wrote:

> hello list
>
> this will probably appear dumb: is there any rule-set that will tell me how
> important an upgrade is?
> i ask, because i recently installed 2.1.12 (works fine) and read shortly
> afterwards, that 2.1.16 is the stable version and then 2.1.17 came out. i also
> read about 'potential database corruption' issues in 2.1.12 but cannot find
> anything in the faq, that would explain to me, what exactly that could mean.
> Please get me right: i appreciate the quality of the work behind openldap and
> the  open fashion in which bug-info is spread, i simply feel unable to make an
> educated decision on whether to follow every single upgrade or not. are there
> any issues with 2.1.12 that could endanger the data i'm keeping in it? how can i
> find potential pitfalls in my current installation?
> please understand that an upgrade is not always easily feasible in the
> application i maintain.
>
> thanks for all clarification,
>
> Markus
>