[RndTbl] Fedora upgrading

[Trevor Cordes]

On 2016-06-01 Kevin McGregor wrote:
> Does anyone know how upgrade-able Fedora is? Say, Fedora 21 -> 22 ->
> 23? What about skipping a version? Does that work, or must you go
> through intermediate versions? Or is it best just to re-install each
> time?

Sure, I've done upgrades on some of my boxes from FC3 all the way to
F22!

The recommended way is to use "fed up" (ever since ~F20).  That
requires being onsite and having a head, AFAIK.  I never use it.

Instead, I do the yum/dnf distro-sync method, which for yum went like
this:
yum --releasever=22 distro-sync

The advantage is you don't have to be onsite nor have a head.  Take
that, Windows!

That'll get you to 22.  After 22 we're now dealing with dnf instead of
yum.  Looks like it'll still work the same, just different syntax.

This is the best page for the 3-5 commands you need to run, with
version differences spelled out for each Fedora release:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgrading_Fedora_using_package_manager?rd=Upgrading_Fedora_using_yum

I've created a cheatsheet I use that I update for every new version,
that makes sure the process is bulletproof as I update dozens of boxes
every 6-12 months.  If you're interested I can distill it and email it
to you.

As for skipping versions: I never have and I wouldn't if using the yum
method.  Docs say don't do it as there are version specific things that
yum will do that might be skipped if you skip a version.  Besides,
using yum it costs nothing to do the intermediates except time and
bandwidth.  With Fed Up I believe you can skip versions, the docs
should say.

Lastly, I always stay back 1 version, using the oldest one that is
still supported.  So right now that's 22 but very soon I'll be forced
into 23 when 24 comes out.  Kind of like the "wait until Windows Foo SP1
release" thinking.  Fedora often breaks things on the initial release,
as they tend to be bleeding edge.  Only if I need a bleeding feature do
I break that rule.

Good luck!