Re: changing to Debian from Mandrake

[DvB <dvanbalen@jam.rr.com>]

> > *  Apt + dselect seem very powerful, efficient if you use them together
> >    correctly.  From the mailing lists, though, "correctly" seems to be
> >    a matter of confusion (or perhaps just preference).  RPMs don't cut
> >    it for bleeding edge multiple-dependency upgrades (as you all know
> >    well).  This reason is key to my wanting to change over.  Have the
> >    people who wrote these systems outlined their correct usage in a
> >    FAQ/manpage/etc.?
> 
> "apt-get update" updates the local package list.
> "apt-get upgrade" upgrades all installed packages to the latest release
> "apt-get dist-upgrade" is more clever and is normally only used if you
> a) are upgrade across distributions (stable -> testing,
> testing->unstable, etc), or b) if you are running unstable and major
> changes have taken place.
> 

To be more explicit, "apt-get upgrade" will not, under any
circumstances, install new packages. This is useful if you don't want
apt installing a buch of extra packages without your knowledge to
satisfy dependencies for an already installed package. It's also the
most common cause of "kept back" packages... at least for me (you can
usually solve "kept back" problems with "apt-get install
<kept-back-package>).

dist-upgrade, OTOH, will install new packages to satisfy dependencies,
which is why it's mostly useful, as stated above, for upgrading between
versions (i.e. stable->testing->unstable).