[TribeLeader]

I've read in various threads about how others do Software Update to avoid problems -- but some of them differed, so I thought I'd start a thread asking how others do it.

My routine, at the moment is ...

Repair permissions
Restart
Software Update

Sometimes I run repair permissions again.

I have not had any problem in the past year (except for yesterday Airport software, which has caused a number of problems, according to the Apple Discussion boards).

What do you do?

[cpac]

i run software update and restart if required.

there is no step 3.

[tooki]

There's no need to restart after repairing permissions, much less to restart and then do it again.

If you're really paranoid, I'd suggest running DiskWarrior first (from the CD), then restart from the hard drive and repair permissions, and then run Software Update.

I just let SU run automatically and I install whatever comes by. Hasn't bitten me yet!

tooki

[CharlesS]

Just run Software Update and reboot if needed.

There is little to no reason to run Repair Permissions afterwards as a ritual. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to run it beforehand.

[daleg]

I always repair permissions, update (restarting if necessary) then repair permissions again before doing any heavy lifting.

If it's a major update (like a system update) I'll check the disk/directory before as well, using either Mac's Disk Utility or Disk Warrior (either by starting from another drive or CD). In these major updates, I'll also run something like Cocktail's full menu of utilities, which not only repair permissions but prebinds the system, etc.

If it's a system update, I'll also de-activate any haxies or other system modifications I have running before the update.

I can't recalll having problems when I've done all of this.

[CharlesS]

It won't cause problems to do that, but it will waste your time because it's not necessary.

All that Repair Permissions does is set the permissions of your files so that they match the packages in /Library/Receipts. Well, if you just installed a package, the files it installed are already going to have the permissions from that package. Now, that package might differ from some other package in the /Library/Receipts, but if it came from Apple, they know what they're doing - it's going to have permissions that will be just fine for the files it installs. Besides, if two different packages specify two different sets of permissions for some file, it's not really possible to tell which one is "right", so Repair Permissions will just have to guess anyway.

Now, as for repairing permissions before running Software Update, well, SU runs as root, so it doesn't give a damn what the existing permissions are on the disk. Especially since you're planning to run RP again after SU, this accomplishes absolutely nothing.

In summary, repairing permissions before and after each Software Update is nothing but a voodoo ritual for the superstitious.

[Xeo]

I repair permissions after updating. Doing it out of habit on those occasions is the only time I remember to do it. The time I did it after the 10.3.6 update had a huge amount of permissions to fix so I'm glad it gets done. I guess if I really wanted I could have it run with the cleanup scripts that run every month or so.

However, I know people who do it on a weekly basis. And they defrag. No matter how many times I tell them it doesn't make their G3 with 128 MB of RAM run OS X any faster, they still do it.

[CatOne]

Originally posted by TribeLeader:
I've read in various threads about how others do Software Update to avoid problems -- but some of them differed, so I thought I'd start a thread asking how others do it.

My routine, at the moment is ...

Repair permissions
Restart
Software Update

Sometimes I run repair permissions again.

I have not had any problem in the past year (except for yesterday Airport software, which has caused a number of problems, according to the Apple Discussion boards).

What do you do?

You forgot:

1) Throw a chicken head over your shoulder
2) Think about doing things to a naked Lisa Bonet
3) Run DiskWarrior
4) Reboot
5) Run Repair Permissions
6) Reboot

*then* start with your list

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Xeo:
I repair permissions after updating. Doing it out of habit on those occasions is the only time I remember to do it. The time I did it after the 10.3.6 update had a huge amount of permissions to fix so I'm glad it gets done.

Depends on what your definition of "fix" is. When Repair Permissions turned up a bunch of files to "fix", all that probably meant is that some other package in /Library/Receipts (maybe BluetoothUpdate141.pkg, maybe AdditionalSpeechVoices.pkg, hell, maybe even some third party package! Hopefully it would scan Apple packages first, but who knows.) had a different idea of what some file's permissions should be than the 10.3.6 update package, and the other package happened to come before the 10.3.6 in the scanning order. I don't know about you, but I would tend to trust an OS update package over most other packages. Who knows if the permissions that the other package wanted may have been f-ed up and the 10.3.6 permissions may be better?

In general, what I feel is: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. There's certainly no need for a voodoo ritual like this after doing something as routine as a software update.

[Xeo]

I would certainly hope that Repair Permissions fixes the permissions to however they should be done for the OS. As a user, I don't care how it figures it out. All I know is when I hit "repair permissions" it should not be using some 3rd party receipt to figure out how to do it for OS stuff.

Although you have a point with "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" although permissions wrong on one file could technically be time bomb that will keep your system from booting should it go off. Technically...

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Xeo:
I would certainly hope that Repair Permissions fixes the permissions to however they should be done for the OS. As a user, I don't care how it figures it out. All I know is when I hit "repair permissions" it should not be using some 3rd party receipt to figure out how to do it for OS stuff.

All I'm saying is that I doubt the permissions in a major OS update package would have any serious problems that some other package would know better.

Although you have a point with "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" although permissions wrong on one file could technically be time bomb that will keep your system from booting should it go off. Technically...

I'd be pretty surprised if you could make the system non-bootable by changing the permissions of a file, since most of the stuff in the boot process runs as root.