Re: How to back-out an apt-get upgrade

[Nick Willson <nick@nickwillson.com>]

> 
> Nick Willson wrote:
> 
> > Can an apt-get upgrade (or similar) be backed-out?  Say the upgrade appears
> > to fail, is there a way to rollback to the previous state?  I am running
> > 2.1.
> 
> APT stores the package files in /var/cache/apt/archives .
> 
> The older version(s) should still be there.
> 
> 
> Michel
> 
> 
> PS: You might be interested in 'apt-get autoclean'
> 

Thank you.  Let me see if this makes sense...

The archives directory "/var/cache/apt/archives" contains the .deb files for 
packages installed since the last "apt-get clean", performed either explicitly 
or via dselect.

A .deb in the archive is (typically) equivalent to the current version 
installed - it could be different (probably newer) if you do an "apt-get 
--download-only" or perform some kind of manual intervention.  If I want to 
able to use the archive for a downgrade, I should copy it somewhere safe 
*before* beginning the upgrade.

Is this correct?

Has anyone used this, or any other mechanism, to rollback (completely or 
partially) after an "apt-get upgrade" or an "apt-get dist-upgrade"?

Thanks

-- 
Nick