Semi-automatic update/upgrade; is Arch wrong distro for these boxen?

Question

I wanted to post here a semi-automatic update/upgrade solution I--with a lot of help from someone more knowledgeable--came up with in case it might be of benefit to anyone else. It's been working pretty well for me over the course of the last couple of weeks and should aid me in becoming a better Archer. I also want to ask in this thread for confirmation on whether installing Arch on a couple of machines I have that see fairly intermittent use is inadvisable: if so, I'll look into installing some other distro. First the semi-automatic update solution.
To begin with, what do I mean by "semi-automatic?" Mainly I mean something that's only partially automatic. See, I've come to understand that automating updates/upgrades is a bad idea©™. And I think I understand why. Still, I apparently lack the discipline to be a good Archer, upgrading/updating frequently so as to conform with the philosophy. So I thought I should use my computer to help me be more disciplined: that's partly what they're for, after all, isn't it?
I decided I might make the computer help me be more disciplined, first of all, by making it issue reminders at frequent, regular intervals, that it is time to update/upgrade. Of course cron came immediatelty to mind as part of the solution, though I ended up using the remind program instead. In any case, it seemed like a solution that, not only would remind me at regular, frequent intervals would be desireable, but one that would at the same time initiate the process, would be even better. I thought it must be possible to, for example, cause a terminal to open with a message and corresponding menu that would say something like "System update/upgrade needed: proceed now? 1. Yes 2. No"
This latter would be one of the elements that makes the solution semi-automatic (as opposed to automatic). Answering 2. in that terminal would cause the terminal to simply exit. Answering 1., on the other hand, runs the command sudo pacman -Syu. There is a further level of semi-automation at this stage: you are then prompted to enter the root password before pacman -Syu will run. So, no updating/upgrading happens without input at these two stages.
I should mention as I wrap up this description of my solution that there is yet another important element to it that, while independent of it, is nonetheless related: I subscribed some weeks ago to the Arch news RSS feed. I check that daily, so an even further level of semi-automation is in play here.
This seems to me like it will be a very good solution to bringing my behavior into better conformity with the Arch philosophy. It's worked well so far. That said, I'm certainly open to criticisms. I'm also very open to any improvements that might be suggested. Without further ado, here is the script I run every other day from the remind daemon:
#!/bin/bash
PS3='Begin full system upgrade? '
options=("Yes" "No")
select opt in "${options[@]}"
do
case $opt in
"Yes")
echo "Beginning full system upgrade..."
sudo pacman -Syu
exit
"No")
exit
echo "Please choose the corresponding number"
esac
done
Now, to my question about my other machines as possible Arch install targets. The above applies to the desktop machine in my apt. which is almost always powered on and connected to the 'net: what follows applies to two different machines.
One is a laptop that I use primarily when I travel. It often sits powered off for 1-2 months between uses. The other is an alternate desktop machine in my apt. that is also infrequently used: essentially, when both the wife and I want to work on-line separately--which is not all that frequently (she prefers knitting to computing during her time at home)--it gets fired up. Again, it often sits for 1-2 months without being used.
Now, it seems to me these machines are poor targets for an Arch install because they are far more frequently off-line than on-line, powered down than powered up. Thus they are very unlikely to be updated/upgraded on any kind of regular basis, and certainly never regularly and frequently, as seems to be recommended for Arch machines.
Am I correct in assuming I should be looking for some other distro to install on these infrequently-used machines?
Thanks,
James
Last edited by jamtat (2013-02-11 22:50:09)

Answer 1

I like pacmatic (as suggested at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … _pacmatic). What is supposed to be wrong with it?
It doesn't ignore updates, by the way. It does two things. First, it checks the news and tells you about important news items as soon as you run e.g. pacmatic -Syu. Then it runs the upgrade in the normal way. For example, a news item today concerned lvm2, dev-mapper and linux being upgraded together. It gave me the news item. Then it did the usual paman upgrade routine and upgraded everything, including those packages. Second, every time you run it, it reminds you of any *.pacnew files you haven't dealt with and asks if you want to deal with them now. At least, it asks about most. It never mentions kdmrc.pacnew for some reason.
It's just a wrapper for pacman. From the script:
Pacmatic is a pacman wrapper that takes care of menial but critial tasks.
These include
Checking the archlinux.org news
Summarizing the arch-general mailing list
Reminding if it has been a while since the last sync
Reporting pacnew files
Editing pacnew files
Personally, I've installed an alternative distro on machines which I'm not sure I will be using very regularly. (Also, I like having distinct distros just in case something goes wrong in one case - even if it is a bit of a faff sometimes.)
Last edited by cfr (2013-02-13 01:49:24)