[CentOS] Understanding yum automatic upgrades

Wed Apr 6 18:15:30 UTC 2011
email builder <emailbuilder88 at yahoo.com>

> > then  the outstanding question is how to figure out why certain 

> > packages are  not being updated.
> 
> Well, first action: did you actually check with the  repo that there is a 
> newer package?

Yes.  I'm not sure why would you think otherwise...?

> Just because a package isn't updated  doesn't mean it's not 
> working.

I *do* think the updater is working, judging from my logwatch emails.  But it's 
quite clear that some packages, clamav being the example here, are definitely 
not being updated.  


> Especially in the case of clamav I think you  haven't done the 
> obvious.

Why do you say that?  What is the obvious?  Checking for an update?  

Perhaps what would clear this up for you is to note that this is an ongoing 
issue, not anything *right now*.  That is, I've watched clam tell me via 
logwatch that it is out of date for weeks at a time before I finally go log in 
and run "yum update clamav" on the command line, which updates things nicely as 
expected.  So clearly in those cases there IS an update available (I also check 
via "yum info" before the update).

So while *some* packages get updated automatically by some mystery process that 
no one here seems to know about (??), some *do not*.

Please don't take me wrong; I'm grateful for the help, but while I'm not a 
highly skilled sysadmin, I'm not asking entirely bonehead questions I think.  
Correct me if I'm wrong though!  :-)