[pacman-dev] [Feature Suggestion] Option to install packages one-by-one when upgrading

[beest]

On Sun, May 28, 2017 at 07:45:02AM +0530, Lakshay Garg wrote:
> [Problem] Whenever a full system upgrade is run with pacman -Syyu,
> pacman downloads all the packages which need to be installed and then
> upgrades all at once. This approach sometimes leads to problems on
> computers with unreliable internet connections as in my case. It often
> happens that while downloading one of then several packages to be
> upgraded, one of the download will get corrupted and in the end when
> it tries to install, none of the packages would get upgraded due to a
> single corrupted package. In such a case, I run pacman -Scc followed
> by pacman -Syyu to try and upgrade again leading to lots of wasted
> data and time.
> 
> [Suggested Solution] What I suggest is that a new commandline flag be
> created in pacman which changes the default behaviour. When the flag
> is enabled, pacman downloads upgrade files for a single package (or a
> few interdependent packages) and upgrade it and then move on to
> upgrade other packages. Thus installing packages one-by-one.
> 
> [Request] Please let me know if this is a possibility or is there
> another way my problem can be solved without modifying pacman. I am
> willing to contribute the patch myself if you can guide me on how to
> proceed. Would like to know if anyone is interested.

Downloaded packages are still in your cache and won't need to be
downloaded again on your next -Syu unless they're already corrupted; by
blindly running -Scc you're doing exactly the thing you're trying to
avoid. (The best thing you can do to save data is ceasing to
unnecessarily pass -y twice every time you upgrade.)

I also don't see changes in -u behavior ever being supported as it would
facilitate partial updates.