[smokeping-users] Upgrade 2.3.6 to 2.4.2 Debian

[Niko Tyni]

On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 02:33:47PM +1100, Keith Pawson wrote:
 
> I've got a Debian Lenny box with Smokeping running 2.3.6 which was installed
> from the Debian Repos with Aptitude about 18 months ago and all is working
> fine.
> However, I want to upgrade it to 2.42 and then the latest snapshot to
> resolve the FF35 zoom issue and I'm having problems figuring out the process
> steps.
> 
> >From what I've read, Googled and seen on this mailing list archive I should
> just copy over the top of the current installation, but this is where I seem
> to find it confusing as there does not appear to be a single area of the
> Smokeping files. I can see my data and customised graphs and have backed
> them up together with my config files such as Targets etc but where do the
> directories of the unzipped smokeping-2.4.2.tar.gz go?

I'm afraid it's not quite as simple as that. The files need some
modifications to work in the directory hierarchy as used by Debian, and
copying local files over dpkg managed ones in /usr means dpkg is free to
overwrite them on upgrades (for example in security updates and the like.)

The right way to switch to a non-Debian version is to install it
separately to /usr/local or /srv and configure it yourself. You need
to copy over the old data but that should be straightforward.

If you're only after the FF35 fix and are happy with 2.3.6 otherwise,
you might be able to get away with the old Debian installation by just
copying over the newer scriptaculous and prototype javascript files. Using
dpkg-divert(8) to prevent dpkg from overwriting your changes in the
future would be a good idea in that case.

I suppose I should see about providing an updated lenny 2.3.6 version
to fix the FF35 issue. If somebody wants to help, finding a minimal fix
to the prototype/scriptaculous stuff (as opposed to blindly upgrading
it all, which goes against the Debian release policies for 'stable'
updates) would go a long way.
-- 
Niko