fou4s - Fast OnlineUpdate for SuSE Copyright (C) 2002-2005 Markus Gaugusch Features: ========= * Tested with SuSE 8.1 to 9.3 (automatic release detection) and most business products (eMail-Server 3.1, SLES 7/8/9, SLOX 4.x) * Fou4s gets the patch descriptions from an FTP/HTTP/RSync server (Can be set in /etc/fou4s.conf, or using the --server option). This is on demand only and not every time. Only changed/new patch descriptions are actually downloaded. * Fou4s can generate update descriptions for RPM packages on an RSync server. This way, you can install 'packman' and 'supplementary' packages via fou4s! * Fou4s compares downloaded description files with installed RPMs and prints differences (version number). Full automatic update installation is supported as well. The detailed update descriptions can also be shown (parameter -v) * Bandwith limiting. Since fou4s 0.10, a download limit in kb/s can be set. * Download and export updates for other (offline) hosts. * Support for external HTTP download URLs (e.g. NVidia drivers) * Downloads and installs the RPMs using wget (with continue option - interrupted downloads will be resumed!) * Everything except real upgrade can be done as normal user. * Signature checking - Non-SuSE packages will be rejected (with the exception of fou4s updates, which are signed with another key only for fou4s). To install your own packages, the signing key of the package must be fully trusted. * Runs SuSEconfig after an update (can be turned off) * HTTP proxy support (using the environment variable http_proxy, which is used by wget then) * FTP benchmark utility included (written by Guenther Sommer ) with support for auto-benchmarking to select fastest download server. Known Bugs/Missing features =========================== Please see the KNOWN-BUGS file. Documentation ============= Except from this README and the web page, there are two manual pages: fou4s(1) and fou4s.conf(5). Of course, the shell script fou4s itself is documented, too. But don't expect too much :) Screenshot ========== fou4s v0.13.1 (c) 2002-2005 Markus Gaugusch usage: fou4s -u [-bqv] [--checkfou4s] [--patchescont] [--proxyuser] [--proxypasswd] fou4s -e [--all] [-bdosv] [--proxyuser] [--proxypasswd] fou4s --auto [-nosv] fou4s -i [-abcdgnorsv] [-f file] [--interactive] [--nodeps] [--proxyuser] [--proxypasswd] fou4s -l [-os] fou4s --server [-vw] [--proxyuser] [--proxypasswd] fou4s --checkdeleted fou4s --fixperm Type fou4s --help for more information. See the manual page fou4s(1) for detailed help. Download ======== You can get fou4s at http://fou4s.gaugusch.at/ I RECOMMEND EVERYONE TO USE THE RPM PACKAGE, because it comes with a good configuration file, everything is preconfigured, and automatic updates of fou4s itself are possible. Also, it is signed with my gpg key: fou4s@gaugusch.at/Fingerprint CF56 897E 834F F180 E941 0E50 0EA1 932B AFB6 6D7C You can also use the Makefile and do "make install" yourself, but there is no (maintained) uninstall. The tar.bz2 file can be used to create an RPM package: rpm --target noarch -bb fou4s-0.x.y.tar.bz2 The RPM file is stored in /usr/src/packages/RPMS/noarch/fou4s-0.x.y-z.noarch.rpm Config File =========== The following files are tried to be used as a config file: ./.fou4s # this has the highest priority and is the default ~/.fou4s /etc/fou4s.conf It is automatically created, if none is found and you use the --server option to select another server. See the manual page fou4s.conf(5) for more information about the config file. Quick Start =========== RPM version: rpm -Uvh fou4s-0.x.y-z.noarch.rpm fou4s --server -w # select ftp server (not necessary, default: ftp.leo.org) fou4s -u --checkfou4s # get update description files for suse and fou4s fou4s -ev # check for updates, but no download/install (evaluation) fou4s -i # download and install all available updates tar.bz2 version: tar --bzip2 -xvf fou4s-0.x.y.tar.bz2 cd fou4s-0.x.y ./fou4s --server -w ./fou4s -u --checkfou4s ./fou4s -ev ./fou4s -i Note: On SuSE >= 8.0, tar xIvf doesn't work anymore, you have to use xjvf. The --bzip2 option is universal. After installation, you probably want to install fou4s in cronjob mode: Run fou4s --cronserver or fou4s --cronworkstation (as root). The server variant runs every day at a fixed time, while in workstation mode, fou4s is called together with the other cron.daily scripts. If you use the RPM version of fou4s, normal users must have write permissions in /var/cache/fou4s/* to make fou4s work. Beginning with version 0.4, members of the group fou4s (automatically created during RPM installation) are allowed to write there. Contributions/Thanks ==================== Thanks to Christian Erpelding for some enhancements to 0.0.1 - I had most of them already in mind, but it's good to know, what other people want :) Thanks to Kilian Krause for beta testing 0.0.3 and some suggestions for functionality. Thanks to Guenther Sommer for the ftp-benchmark utility contributed to 0.1.0. Thanks to Gottfried Necker , who sent me a patch fixing UseFullPath in 0.4.1. Many thanks to Lars Ellenberg , who sent me MANY improvements for 0.7.0 and later - I really learnt a LOT from you! And finally, thanks to the following people, who contributed by suggesting new features or reporting bugs (no particular order): Peter Poeml Steffen Dettmer Christoph Thiel Bernhard Held Peter Suetterlin Bernd Krüger-Knauber René Gallati Alexander Reach Anatol Studler Manfred Larcher Michael T Hintsala Kevin Ivory Robert C dot Paulsen Jr dot Hans Foertsch Markus Winkler Contact ======= http://fou4s.gaugusch.at/ Markus Gaugusch