User's Manual

Section A.2:Upgrading Your System 79
A Upgrading Your Current System
This appendix walks you through a typical Red Hat Linux 7.2 upgrade.
A.1 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.
Note
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 addi-
tional packages which are not on your system.
A.2 Upgrading Your System
At this point, you should have chosen Upgrade as your preferred installation type (see Figure A–1,
Choosing Install or Upgrade).