Appendix A. Upgrading Your Current System

This appendix walks you through a typical Red Hat Linux 7.2 upgrade.

What it Means to Upgrade

The installation process for Red Hat Linux 7.2 includes the ability to upgrade from prior versions of Red Hat Linux (version 3.0.3 and later) which are based on RPM technology.

Upgrading your system installs the modular 2.4.x kernel as well as updated versions of the packages which are currently installed on your system.

The upgrade process preserves existing configuration files by renaming them with an .rpmsave extension (for example, sendmail.cf.rpmsave). The upgrade process also creates a log of its actions in /tmp/upgrade.log. As software evolves, configuration file formats can change, so you should carefully compare your original configuration files to the new files before integrating your changes.

NoteNote
 

Some upgraded packages may require the installation of other packages for proper operation. If you choose to customize your packages to upgrade, you may be required to resolve dependency problems. Otherwise, the upgrade procedure takes care of these dependencies, but it may need to install additional packages which are not on your system.