No subject

We manage a *lot* of asterisk boxes at client locations at the end of =
DSL connections. We have a schedule to make sure each box is updated =
once a month (e.g. "these 10 boxes are updated in week 1 by Marcus, then =
in week 5 by Tom, etc."). If we can login and run a couple of simple =
commands to bring everything up to date, that saves us many hours every =
month.

For better or worse, we generally use Gentoo Linux on our servers. With =
one command (emerge -DuavN world) I can bring a box completely up to =
date.

Asterisk 1.2's portage packages are generally stable and fairly =
up-to-date. So, doing a portage update automatically upgrades asterisk, =
zaptel, libpri, speex and any other relevant packages at the same time =
as updating other core system libraries.

Installing 1.4 is a pain. The individual installers for each relevant =
package have to be grabbed from Digium (or a mirror), then saved =
somewhere, then untarred, then ./configure'd, then made, then installed. =
And in a month's time if something's been updated, the procedure has to =
be repeated. It changes updating a server from a 5 minute operation into =
an hour or so.

Yeah, part of it's laziness, but it's more about efficient use of =
employee time. If 1.2 does what the client needs and 1.4 would require =
many times the admin time, it isn't happening.

In terms of fixing it - Digium could perhaps consider providing packages =
for the common *nix distros, which would be updated by them when new =
versions are released. We could then add the Digium "layer" (as it's =
referred under portage, other package managers probably call it =
something different) and it would be sync'd at the same time as the main =
distro portage tree.

This is something I'd consider paying an annual subscription for.

Regards,

Chris
--=20
C.M. Bagnall, Director, Minotaur I.T. Limited
For full contact details visit http://www.minotaur.it
This email is made from 100% recycled electrons