mpan via arch-general <arch-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > According to > > https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System_maintenance#Partial_upgrades_are_unsupported > > pacman -Sywu is not safe. But pacman -Syu is safe. Quoting the wiki, the > > rational is that pacman -Sywu > > will update the pacman sync database without installing the newer packages. > > What I fail to see is why pacman -Sywu, followed by pacman -Su, > > 1. Will update the pacman sync database without installing the newer packages. > > But then > > 2. Will not update the pacman sync database while installing the > > packages it has prevoiusly downloaded. > If `-Sywu` is *immediately* followed by `-Su` then there is no risk > of running into a partial upgrade, but: > > 1) Then there is normally no reason to run those as separate commands, > as `-Sywu` immediately followed by `-Su` has no benefits compared > to simple `-Syu`. `-Sywu` is used to avoid the update, but download > package files to the cache. > 2) You are mentioning a system timer, so I assume `-Sywu` is not > immediately followed by `-Su`. Unless you are also running > unattended updates, which is even worse and *will* eventually > break your system. > > `checkupdates -d` does exactly the same as `-Sywu`, but without > updating the system-wide sync databases. So pacman???s view of everything > remains the same as if nothing was updated. It only gets package files > in the cache. I have tried to look into the checkupdates script, but got confused. It looks not long bash script. Does it do the work by copying the system-wide sync databases to a temporary databases, works on those temporary databases, and wiped them before exiting? -- jadon
