Update a single package on many host

[JGroselle]

Hello,

First of all thank you for this tool. Really efficient.
Is it possible to update a defined package for a selected group ?
For example:

• if I want to upgrade (not install) the package libjpeg-dev on all the server in group [web]
• if I want to upgrade (not install) the package libjpeg-dev on all the server in apt-dater

The command line should be:

apt-get install --only-upgrade libjpeg-dev

This feature is really important for us.
Thank you.

[DejavuDmitry]

I'm supporting this feature request.

[kiranos]

can you explain a scenario where you dont want to do upt-get upgrade instead of upgrade a single package. For security reasons its a good rule to follow to try to keep all packages up2date.

Im just thinking about keeping apt-dater with minimal very usable features so it dont become cluttered with features only very few uses. Would be great to hear about scenarios where you dont want to do apt-get dist-upgrade|upgrade

[JGroselle]

First of all thank you for your quick answer.
About the scenario, imagine 3 servers, one PostgreSQL server and two web servers. After a aptitude update I have those package out of date:
On PostgreSQL:

• postgresql

On web server "a":

• openssl
• nginx

On web server "b"

• apache
• php
• openssl
• nodejs

I do not want to update postgresql package, nginx, apache, php or nodejs, because this will be a little project, but security team want me to upgrade all the openssl packages on all the linux servers. This lead to two problems:

1. I need to upgrade just openssl on this server, so I could press "i" and as it is already installed, apt-dater will upgrade it.
2. I need to upgrade only openssl on all my servers but if it is not installed I do not want install it. Just upgrade all servers (on a group for example) which contain this package.

I hope I am clear.
Have a good day.

[liske]

Hi,

as a quick workaround you might try to use the "install" function. On
Debian installing a package again will install the update. Although this
records the package as "manual installed" (while the package might be
"auto installed" due to dependencies). I think this should work on other
package managers, too.

The is a --only-upgrade option for apt-get to prevent accidentally
installing a package on a host where the package was not installed. As a
hack for Debian based systems you could press 'i' on a
section/group/host and enter something like:

--ony-upgrade pkg1 pkg2

This should upgrade pkg1 and pkg2 and their dependencies.

HTH,
Thomas

On 07/08/2015 04:18 PM, Julien Groselle wrote:

First of all thank you for your quick answer.
About the scenario, imagine 3 servers, one PostgreSQL server and two web
servers. After a aptitude update I have those package out of date:
On PostgreSQL:

• postgresql

On web server "a":

• openssl
• nginx

On web server "b"

• apache
• php
• openssl
• nodejs

I do not want to update postgresql package, nginx, apache, php or
nodejs, because this will be a little project, but security team want me
to upgrade all the openssl packages on all the linux servers. This lead
to two problems:

1. I need to upgrade just openssl on this server, so I could press "i"
   and as it is already installed, apt-dater will upgrade it.
2. I need to upgrade only openssl on all my servers but if it is not
   installed I do not want install it. Just upgrade all servers (on a
   group for example) which contain this package.

I hope I am clear.
Have a good day.

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[JGroselle]

Hi,

The workaround work in my case, thank you. But it should be better to implement this option.
I think it is something really important.

Upgrade a GNU/Linux production server is not always a simple task due to the number and the type of package out of date. We are not Windows sysadmin and their "Patch & pray" policy... :-P

Have a good day. Again thanks.

[liske]

ACK

The first step is to extend the apt-dater-host stuff to support 'selective package upgrades' before apt-dater could implement it. After a quick look at different package manager backends most of them seems to support upgrading selected packages.

HTH,
Thomas