Question

So, I’m trying out an update (upgrade) script for CentOS

I have a Virtualbox VM for testing, on which I have a snapshot to which I can roll back

The script is written in dash (not bash)
These are the lines that matter in my script:

HOLDPKGS=(kernel python)

The following loop adds strings nicely

for paket in ${HOLDPKGS[*]}
do
  HOLDSTRING="--exclude=\"$paket*\" $HOLDSTRING"
done

Here lies the problem:

yum $HOLDSTRING -y update >> "$UPGRADE_LOGFILE" 2>&1

When I run the script with sh -x < scriptname >, this is the output (that matters):

+ HOLDSTRING='--exclude="python*" --exclude="kernel*" '
++ yum '--exclude="python*"' '--exclude="kernel*"' -y update

It finishes the update without errors, and no warnings regarding the syntax.

Yum completely ignores the exclude directives. This is what i’m seeing in the log:

Dependencies Resolved

================================================================================
 Package                 Arch   Version                           Repository
                                                                           Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 kernel                  x86_64 2.6.32-279.19.1.el6               updates  25 M
Updating:
 cpio                    x86_64 2.10-11.el6_3                     updates 192 k
 dhclient                x86_64 12:4.1.1-31.0.1.P1.el6.centos.1   updates 317 k
 dhcp-common             x86_64 12:4.1.1-31.0.1.P1.el6.centos.1   updates 141 k
 dracut                  noarch 004-284.el6_3.1                   updates 112 k
 dracut-kernel           noarch 004-284.el6_3.1                   updates  21 k
 glibc                   x86_64 2.12-1.80.el6_3.6                 updates 3.8 M
 glibc-common            x86_64 2.12-1.80.el6_3.6                 updates  14 M
 initscripts             x86_64 9.03.31-2.el6.centos.1            updates 935 k
 kernel-firmware         noarch 2.6.32-279.19.1.el6               updates 8.7 M
 krb5-libs               x86_64 1.9-33.el6_3.3                    updates 713 k
 libblkid                x86_64 2.17.2-12.7.el6_3                 updates 112 k
 libssh2                 x86_64 1.2.2-11.el6_3                    updates  75 k
 libudev                 x86_64 147-2.42.el6                      updates  75 k
 libuuid                 x86_64 2.17.2-12.7.el6_3                 updates  65 k
 mysql-libs              x86_64 5.1.66-2.el6_3                    updates 1.2 M
 nspr                    x86_64 4.9.1-2.el6_3                     updates 111 k
 nss                     x86_64 3.13.5-1.el6_3                    updates 763 k
 nss-sysinit             x86_64 3.13.5-1.el6_3                    updates  32 k
 nss-tools               x86_64 3.13.5-1.el6_3                    updates 729 k
 nss-util                x86_64 3.13.5-1.el6_3                    updates  53 k
 openldap                x86_64 2.4.23-26.el6_3.2                 updates 262 k
 openssl                 x86_64 1.0.0-25.el6_3.1                  updates 1.4 M
 python                  x86_64 2.6.6-29.el6_3.3                  updates 4.8 M
 python-libs             x86_64 2.6.6-29.el6_3.3                  updates 623 k
 redhat-logos            noarch 60.0.14-12.el6.centos             updates  15 M
 selinux-policy          noarch 3.7.19-155.el6_3.14               updates 1.3 M
 selinux-policy-targeted noarch 3.7.19-155.el6_3.14               updates 2.6 M
 sudo                    x86_64 1.7.4p5-13.el6_3                  updates 423 k
 tzdata                  noarch 2012j-1.el6                       updates 453 k
 udev                    x86_64 147-2.42.el6                      updates 361 k
 util-linux-ng           x86_64 2.17.2-12.7.el6_3                 updates 1.5 M

I tried doing this:

echo yum $HOLDSTRING -y update >> "$UPGRADE_LOGFILE" 2>&1

And pasting the output:

yum --exclude="python*" --exclude="kernel*" -y update

into the shell. That finished nicely (ignored kernel & python)

Dependencies Resolved

================================================================================
 Package                 Arch   Version                           Repository
                                                                           Size
================================================================================
Updating:
 cpio                    x86_64 2.10-11.el6_3                     updates 192 k
 dhclient                x86_64 12:4.1.1-31.0.1.P1.el6.centos.1   updates 317 k
 dhcp-common             x86_64 12:4.1.1-31.0.1.P1.el6.centos.1   updates 141 k
 dracut                  noarch 004-284.el6_3.1                   updates 112 k
 dracut-kernel           noarch 004-284.el6_3.1                   updates  21 k
 glibc                   x86_64 2.12-1.80.el6_3.6                 updates 3.8 M
 glibc-common            x86_64 2.12-1.80.el6_3.6                 updates  14 M
 initscripts             x86_64 9.03.31-2.el6.centos.1            updates 935 k
 krb5-libs               x86_64 1.9-33.el6_3.3                    updates 713 k
 libblkid                x86_64 2.17.2-12.7.el6_3                 updates 112 k
 libssh2                 x86_64 1.2.2-11.el6_3                    updates  75 k
 libudev                 x86_64 147-2.42.el6                      updates  75 k
 libuuid                 x86_64 2.17.2-12.7.el6_3                 updates  65 k
 mysql-libs              x86_64 5.1.66-2.el6_3                    updates 1.2 M
 nspr                    x86_64 4.9.1-2.el6_3                     updates 111 k
 nss                     x86_64 3.13.5-1.el6_3                    updates 763 k
 nss-sysinit             x86_64 3.13.5-1.el6_3                    updates  32 k
 nss-tools               x86_64 3.13.5-1.el6_3                    updates 729 k
 nss-util                x86_64 3.13.5-1.el6_3                    updates  53 k
 openldap                x86_64 2.4.23-26.el6_3.2                 updates 262 k
 openssl                 x86_64 1.0.0-25.el6_3.1                  updates 1.4 M
 redhat-logos            noarch 60.0.14-12.el6.centos             updates  15 M
 selinux-policy          noarch 3.7.19-155.el6_3.14               updates 1.3 M
 selinux-policy-targeted noarch 3.7.19-155.el6_3.14               updates 2.6 M
 sudo                    x86_64 1.7.4p5-13.el6_3                  updates 423 k
 tzdata                  noarch 2012j-1.el6                       updates 453 k
 udev                    x86_64 147-2.42.el6                      updates 361 k
 util-linux-ng           x86_64 2.17.2-12.7.el6_3                 updates 1.5 M

As you can see, in the lower example, we don’t have the kernel packages, which is what we want.

Does anyone see what i’m doing wrong? :/

P.S.
I have just tried running the script within a bash environment, and the problem persists :/

Answer 1

The problem is your quotes. There is no package matching "kernel*", but there is a package matching kernel*. But you should be using arrays anyway.

HOLDARR=()
for paket in ${HOLDPKGS[*]}
do
  HOLDARR+=(--exclude="$paket*")
done

yum "${HOLDARR[@]}" -y update