Package upgrades in FOSS distributions: details and challenges

TL;DR

This paper examines the unique challenges of upgrading packages in FOSS distributions, highlighting shortcomings of current package managers and proposing potential solutions to improve upgrade reliability.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of package upgrade problems in FOSS distributions and discusses limitations of existing solutions, suggesting new approaches.

Findings

Current package managers struggle with frequent upgrade failures.

Existing countermeasures are inadequate for reliable upgrades.

Alternative solutions are proposed to address upgrade challenges.

Abstract

The upgrade problems faced by Free and Open Source Software distributions have characteristics not easily found elsewhere. We describe the structure of packages and their role in the upgrade process. We show that state of the art package managers have shortcomings inhibiting their ability to cope with frequent upgrade failures. We survey current countermeasures to such failures, argue that they are not satisfactory, and sketch alternative solutions.