Over at updates.redhat.com I notice a lot of rpms for upgrading. However, many are for services I don't provide. Now do you guys just not apply patches to services you don't run or do you update all of them just in case?

And if I upgrade an rpm I don't use will that enable the service?

I remove all of the rpms for software that we don't use, so I don't worry about updating them.

If I didn't remove them, then I would probably update them.

It's unlikely that updating an rpm will execute the software that it contains, but it may. It depends on the rpm.

If you're not real familiar with the rpm system, you might just want to setup up2date and run it.

HI!
As a rule you should never keep unwanted rpms... Just the required one and the dependencies... That's it..

Have a great day :)

regards
amar

Make sure you upgrade any services that are enabled on the box.

If you are not using a service, make sure it is not being started for you in the background by not installing it at all :).

-t

Originally posted by bobcares
As a rule you should never keep unwanted rpms... Just the required one and the dependencies... That's it..

You hear that? It's a rule! You better do it that way, else you'll be breaking the rule! :)

Originally posted by Skeptical
Over at updates.redhat.com I notice a lot of rpms for upgrading. However, many are for services I don't provide. Now do you guys just not apply patches to services you don't run or do you update all of them just in case?

And if I upgrade an rpm I don't use will that enable the service?

Well, I don't think it is a good idea, since it would be more security risk. For example, it is often considered a good security practice to remove package rsh and the like. Now if Redhat issue an advisory about rsh, and you 'upgrade' it, then you will have rsh back on your system.

Thanks for the advice. That's what I thought too but just wanted to make sure.

Another thing. How do I go about finding out which RPMs I don't need on my system? There are tons and tons of them and many I do not know what they're for.

Originally posted by Skeptical
Thanks for the advice. That's what I thought too but just wanted to make sure.

Another thing. How do I go about finding out which RPMs I don't need on my system? There are tons and tons of them and many I do not know what they're for.

Try querying those RPMs for information. 'rpm -qa' list all RPMs, 'rpm -qi foo' shows information about package foo, 'rpm -ql foo' shows files belong to package foo.