Re: install/upgrade
On Mon, Mar 31, 2003 at 04:06:29PM +0100, john walsh wrote:
> I currently run RedHat (7.3), but am thinking about switching to
> Debian because of the upgrade nature of RH.
>
> With Debian - how does the process of keeping the packages/system
> updated work ?
You should be able to find answers here:
http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-uptodate.en.html#s-howtocurrent
> On RedHat, I use up2date, which is excellent, except that it won't
> upgrade me from my current channel (7.3) to the latest channel, which
> means a re-install (I think), which I'd rather not have to do.
>
> So what I really want to know about Debian is:
>
> 1) is there some system for checking for newer packages, and installing
> them (like RH up2date) ?
We have apt, which is only the most recent in a set of package
management tools (dselect, dpkg-ftp, etc.).
> 2) does it keep me really up to date ? ie. when the next release
> past woody comes out, will it upgrade to it, or do I have to re-install
> again ?
Yes, Debian has been able to do this since pretty much the beginning of
time. If you try hard enough and are willing to go through enough
intermediate steps you should be able to upgrade a Debian 1.1 system
(our first release) to Debian 3.0 and beyond, not that I'm sure I'd
recommend the effort. :)
You should never have to reinstall a Debian system.
Cheers,
--
Colin Watson [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]
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