[Asterisk-Users] How to upgrade safe?

[Rich Adamson]

> *CLI> show version
> Asterisk CVS-HEAD-03/13/05-23:38:12 built by root at me on a x86_64 running 
> Linux
> 
> 
> How can I upgrade safe?
> How can I downgrade if something did not work out right?
> What should I upgrade?
> Where can I read for each package the changes to see if it is worth to 
> upgrade?
> Is there a security allert somewhere, that informs me, I have to upgrade 
> now?

Here's a summary (going from memory) on how to address changing 
versions.

Look at the asterisk.org download page instructions. If you follow
those, all source code gets installed in /usr/src directories. After
following the compile instructions, all executable code gets installed
in /usr/lib/asterisk/modules directory.

The "make install" part of the instructions will not over-write
code that is newer (in /usr/lib/asterisk/modules), so if you want
to downgrade asterisk, you'll have to do something manually with
the code that resides in /usr/lib/asterisk/modules.

The drivers get installed in /lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/misc.

Other more experienced then I might want to comment on this process. 

One way to do that is simply:
 cd /usr/lib/asterisk/modules
 mkdir backup
 mv /usr/lib/asterisk/modules/* /usr/lib/asterisk/modules/backup
If you have to restore this version, then reverse the above steps.
(Do the same for /lib/modules/2.4.20-31.9/misc directory, substituting
the correct kernal version in that string.)

For the source code directories, here is what I do:
 cd /usr/src
 mv zaptel zaptel-April9
 mv libpri libpri-April9
 mv asterisk asterisk-April9
where April9 represents the date compiled for that code. To restore
those versions of source code, reverse the above steps.

Then follow the instructions on the asterisk.org download page to
check out the stable or head source code and compile it.

If you haven't compiled asterisk from source code before, then pay
attention to the "required packages" needed to compile the code
before attempting to do the above.

If you successfully compiled and installed everything, then stop
asterisk, stop and reload the drivers, and restart asterisk. If
you're a windows kind of guy, reboot the system. ;)

The above does not over-write your config files in /etc/asterisk,
but if you're not sure what your doing, then back those up before
mucking around.

As I mentioned at the top of this post, I wrote the above from 
memory. So, double-check each step as you're doing them.