### Upgrading OpenSUSE Leap online ### | |
I use SUSE on my computer since SuSE Linux 9.1 (yes, I'm that old). Since a | |
couple of years, I perform online upgrades - they are much more convenient | |
than the CD- or DVD-based upgrade process. Upgrading OpenSUSE used to require | |
changing all the registered repositories so they point to the next version, | |
allowing YaST (zypper) to fetch the new packages. It is only recently that I | |
learned about a neat trick to avoid this hassle: instead of hard-coding the | |
OpenSUSE version in the repository URL, use the $releasever variable! | |
Specifically, in YaST / Online Repositories, instead of such repos: | |
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/15.1/repo/oss/ | |
http://packman.inode.at/suse/openSUSE_Leap_15.1/ | |
Use these: | |
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/leap/$releasever/repo/oss/ | |
http://packman.inode.at/suse/openSUSE_Leap_$releasever/ | |
The day-to-day working of such repositories is the same, but when time for | |
upgrade comes, there is no need any more to change all your repositories. | |
The online upgrade becomes a simple, almost enjoyable 4-steps process: | |
1. Make sure your distribution is up-to-date | |
2. Refresh zypper using the n+1 version of your SUSE system: | |
# zypper --releasever=15.2 ref | |
3. Perform the distribution upgrade: | |
# zypper --releasever=15.2 dup | |
4. Reboot | |