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Rollback on current mainstream distros isn't really possible because their package managers are rather primitive. Newer system package managers like GNU Guix a
by davexunit 10y ago
Rollback on current mainstream distros isn't really possible because their package managers are rather primitive. Newer system package managers like GNU Guix and Nix feature atomic updates and rollback so breakage is easily remedied. Their associated distros, GuixSD and NixOS, feature rollback for the entire OS. I made a bad configuration change the other day that kept me from logging in to my desktop environment, so I just rebooted and chose the previous generation of my system from the GRUB menu and was back in action.
- jjnoakes 10y agoI pin older versions of packages all the time via yum.
- davexunit 10y agoNot the same thing. Yum also doesn't provide atomic upgrades.
- jjnoakes 10y agoWhile not identical to Guix or Nix, it certainly is analogous to rolling things back. If I upgrade a package from 1.0.1 to 1.0.2 and it breaks, I can pin it to 1.0.1 and continue on my merry way.
- davexunit 10y agoBut without the rollback being atomic, there is potential for the rollback to fail and the system to be left in a broken state. Guix and Nix also can record many generations of the system and roll back to any one of them. Pinning packages with yum is very primitive and unsafe by comparison.
- jjnoakes 10y agoYum typically upgrades packages through very minor version changes. Like a.b.c to a.b.c+1. Rolling back is not nearly dangerous as you are implying in a curated distribution.