[ec2-beta] motd: "apt-get update" before "tasksel --section server"

[Chuck Short]

Eric Hammond wrote:
> Mark:
>
> That may be a tough question to answer optimally for all use cases.
>
> In some situations it would be handy for the user to have this done automatically.  There is certainly a percentage of users who stumble, not realizing that an update is needed before they attempt to upgrade or install a package.
>
> On the other hand, doing an automatic update on every first boot of every instance could get in the way of approaches that other (often more advanced) users want to take.  For example:
>
> When instance set up is scripted through user-data, the first step is often an update, then it continues to upgrade or install software.  If the image itself triggers the update, then the user-data script would need to be more complicated to figure out when the built-in asynchronous update has completed.
>   
Doing an apt-get update in the python scripts wont stop the user from 
running an apt-get update in their user-data scripts.
> In the automated cases, some users may also wish to add multiverse or to switch sources.list to a mirror frozen at a specific date (e.g., using RightScale's mirrors) before running "apt-get update".  Triggering an update before this would simply get in the way.
>
>   

Rightscale on the ubuntu images setup their own /etc/apt/sources.list 
after the ec2-init scripts run. So it doesnt matter.
> Every time we are tempted to add software, add processes, add more convenience for beginner and manual users, we risk slowing down and getting in the way of the expert and the automated.
>
> I'm not confident of what the best answer is in this case, but I lean towards the simple and the minimal as a guiding principle when there are options for base install EC2 images.
>
> --
> Eric Hammond
> http://www.anvilon.com
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Shuttleworth <mark at ubuntu.com>
> Date: Tuesday, Mar 31, 2009 11:55 pm
> Subject: Re: [ec2-beta] motd: "apt-get update" before "tasksel --section server"
> To: Eric Hammond <ehammond at thinksome.com>
> CC: "ec2-beta at lists.ubuntu.com" <ec2-beta at lists.ubuntu.com>
>
>         Eric Hammond wrote:
>   
>>   Consider expanding the motd instructions to something like:
>>  sudo apt-get update && sudo tasksel --section server
>>    Alternatively, could we attempt to do an update immediately after the install?
>>
>> Mark
>>  
>>     
>
>
>