Re: apt-get: "The following packages have been kept back" - What does it mean?

[John Travis <jo45712@swt.edu>]

Mario Vukelic wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I'm running potato. Recently I've upgraded helix-gnome and since then
> every time i run apt-get upgrade (or dist-upgrade) it tells me:
> 
> "host:/home/mario# apt-get upgrade
> Reading Package Lists... Done
> Building Dependency Tree... Done
> The following packages have been kept back
>   task-helix-gnome
> 0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded."
> 
> What does "kept back" mean /exactly/? Can I "dpkg --purge
> task-helix-gnome" safely? My understanding is that it isn't needed after
> it has done it's duty of selecting all gnome packages that depend on it.
> Am I right?
> 

Not necessarily.  'apt-get upgrade' won't remove or add any extra packages where
'apt-get dist-upgrade' will.  That one would be safe, but for others trying an
apt-get install task-helix-gnome (or whatever the package) would probably show
you that there were some extra packages to be installed as well...
 
	upgrade
              upgrade  is  used to install the newest versions of
              all packages currently installed on the system from
              the  sources  enumerated  in /etc/apt/sources.list.
              Packages  currently  installed  with  new  versions
              available  are  retrieved  and  upgraded;  under no
              circumstances  are  currently  installed   packages
              removed,   or   packages   not   already  installed
              retrieved and installed. New versions of  currently
              installed  packages that cannot be upgraded without
              changing the install status of another package will
              be left at their current version. An update must be
              performed first so  that  apt-get  knows  that  new
              versions of packages are available.

Straight from man apt-get :-).

jt

P.S.  I just did a reiser-debian install (my first "real" debian install).  I
hand apt'ed everything I thought I needed.  But there are several packages I was
obviously oblivious to, that I would like back :-).  A good example would be
that in "man apt-get" when I do a search with "/" the results  aren't
highlighted anymore.  Am I missing a package or just a config?  Any help
appreciated.
-- 
Debian GNU/Linux [Woody]
2.4.0-test9-ReiserFS
You mean there's a stable tree?