[CentOS] Updating - CentOS Repository

Thu Jul 28 02:59:51 UTC 2005
Claudio Castro <ccastro at fcpolit.unr.edu.ar>

Jim Perrin wrote:

>On 7/27/05, Root Fac. Cs. Politicas <ccastro at fcpolit.unr.edu.ar> wrote:
>  
>
>>Hello,
>>I was wondering if any of you know why the CentOS repository are not
>>updated? for example, i just heard about the bugs of the version <=1.4.4
>>of Squirrelmail and on their website there is already a stable packet
>>1.4.5, but in the CentOS repository the only available version is the
>>1.4.3 9a
>>
>>Any ideas?
>>    
>>
>
>RedHat, and by proxy CentOS backport fixes to security problems rather
>than upgrading to new versions, as new versions can introduce new
>problems. What is released as an update by centos and RHEL is patched,
>so you can't really go by version number alone.
>
>  
>
>>Another thing, im new using yum so i have a question, for example if i
>>put "yum install squirrelmail1.4.5" but i have the version 1.4.3 already
>>installed in my system, what happens? does the yum override the old
>>version? what happens with the config files?
>>    
>>
>
>This depends on the RPM, and what's marked as a config file. For
>proper packages, config files are not replaced, and new default
>configs are created as configfilename.rpmnew. Also, to upgrade you
>don't need to tell it to install the new one. Simply do "yum update"
>or "yum upgrade". This will install check for any newer versions of
>packages that you have installed, and ask if it's okay to install
>them.
>
>
>--
>Jim Perrin
>System Administrator - UIT
>Ft Gordon & US Army Signal Center
>_______________________________________________
>CentOS mailing list
>CentOS at centos.org
>http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>
>  
>
So are you saying that the packet I found in the CentOS repository 
(1.4.3) it's patched properly?
 when I do a "yum update" what im really doing?changing versions or not?
 just updating to patched versions?
 what if I want to install a new version of a package?
what should i do to upgrade to a new version instead of a patched version?
Anyway....why isnt the package of squirrelmail 1.4.5 in the repository?
where can i find a description of the packages in the repository..i 
mean...how can i know the real version..the patches applied to it..and etc.

Is there a way to use yum only to fix security problems? or that is what 
it really do and i dont know it yet...the first time i run yum update..i 
download a lot of packages..but how can i know if they are new version 
or just security patches for my old ones...?
If i regulary use the yum update should I be relax that I have all my 
packages up to date and with their security patches?

Thanks