When I install some system, I usually look for a bulk update method, one that will update my recently-installed software.
For example, in Debian, that would be changing the sources.list
to point to what I want, and executing # apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
.
Is there an equivalent to this in Fedora (18)? Is there a GUI upgrade manager that I am missing?
A message in Gnome popped up that my system requires important updates. I dismissed it, as the only option it had presented me with was "Install updates", and I wasn't quite sure what would that do.
Now, the message has disappeared, and I cannot find it, not any software it might have been connected with.
What am I missing here?
Best Answer
Before Fedora 17
None of the Red Hat distros prior to Fedora 17 included the ability to do dist-upgrades as you've asked. This had been a long discussed option on many peoples' wish list but had never been implemented.
But before we start a clarification...
So typically people would do one of the following:
Rawhide
Use the Rawhide release, which is the bleeding edge version, similar to how Sid is in Debian. Rawhide offers rolling releases in the sense that it always has the latest versions of packages, but it's by no means meant to be used as a day to day distro, it's really meant only for testing.
Stay with a single release
Just live with this fact and stay up to date as long as the distro stayed around, using
yum
. You can useyum
to both apply any pending updates and/or update a single package. Additionally,yum
can be used to install new packages too.Apply all pending updates (assumes yes to all prompts):
Update a single package:
Install a new package:
Software Update Applet
If you want to perform updates using a GUI you can use the software updater tool that shows up in your taskbar. This tool essentially does the same thing as the
yum -y update
above, and can be run on demand using the following command:Re-install
As a new version comes out, you'd manually do a fresh install and take care to copy any data and configurations forward to the new system.
PreUpgrade
Make use of PreUpgrade tool. This tool essentially just collected your setups and the names of the packages you installed and would assist you in applying them to a new installation. See @JoelDavis' answer for this technique as well.
NOTE: This is no longer an option starting with Fedora 18 though so you've been warned.
Fedora 17 and after
Beginning with 17 you can now do rolling releases.
FedUp
New in Fedora 17/18 is a tool called FedUp (FEDora UPgrader) which purports to do "dist-upgrades" similar to Debian/Ubuntu distros.
Rolling Releases vs. Versioned Releases
The OP asked a follow-up question where he wanted me to elaborate on the following phrase:
When I made that comment I meant one thing and the phrase "rolling releases" really means something else. When I wrote that I meant "rolling release" to mean that you could now roll from one point release of Fedora (say 17) to version 18. Most distros such as Debian & Ubuntu provide this facility now.
However in looking up the description of what "rolling releases" actually means on wikipedia, I'm now more educated on the subject.
excerpt from wikipedia
So from a purists standpoint, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, are not "rolling releases". They are point standard released software that provide tools to assist in the upgrading from one point release to another.
The OP also asked the following question
Just so that it's clear to any future readers. Even the development branches of Debian (aka. Sid) and Fedora (aka. Rawhide) are not "rolling releases". Sure you can use them as such but they are merely a development "area" where new packages of software that may be incorporated into a future release can be presented to the community in a centralized way.
The level of testing that would go into a package being placed in one of these branches is less stringent than say when a package shows up as an update in a true "rolling release" distro such as ArchLinux (would be my expectation).
Here's the section of the wikipedia page that covers the use of development branches for standard release distros: