Package building and upgrading

[Adam Winebaugh]

Guru's,
I am EXTREMELY new to Red Hat Linux. I am running Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS release 3 (Taroon Update 9). I recieved an IAVA alert saying that I needed to upgrade my net-snmp from net-snmp-libs-5.0.9-2.30E.23 and net-snmp-5.0.9-2.30E.23, to net-snmp-libs-5.0.9-2.30E.24 and net-snmp-5.0.9-2.30E.24. I have the src.rpm file, but again I am extremely NEW to Linux. How do I go about, building the package and installing these updates? Is there an easier way than having to build it myself? Please Help.

[Matti_Kurkela · Accepted solution]

There usually is an easier way, if you have a valid RedHat support agreement.

If your system is registered to RedHat Network (and it should be, otherwise you aren't getting your money's worth from the RedHat support), just use the up2date utility to automatically download and install the updated binary packages from RedHat. The up2date system uses strong cryptography to verify that the new packages are genuine.

If you have GUI access (X Window System), run "up2date" and go through the dialogs: they are very self-explanatory.

If you have only text-based terminal access, you can use the "up2date -u" command to update everything to the current level at once. Selective updating would be more difficult without GUI access, but it can be done: to update net-snmp and net-snmp-libs, run "up2date --install net-snmp" and "up2date --install net-snmp-libs". The command will detect you have older versions of those packages already installed, and will automatically update them.

If there are updated kernel packages (kernel-*), those updates will take effect only after a reboot. However, the up2date utility will *never* force you to reboot the system: you're free to install the updates whenever you wish and boot at some later time.

MK

[Adam Winebaugh]

Thanks for that Matti! I do have exceed running so I was able to use up2date and successfully update my net-snmp. Thanks again for the help. I am so new to Linux it is sad. So once again thanks!!!!!