upgrading packages that are in use, especially X or gnome
I know you don't need to reboot after you apt-get upgrade, but I'm a bit
curious about upgrading packages that are in use.
I knowly vaguely that the kernel allows you to replace executables that
are in use so "it all works", but I have questions.
*Services like cupsys or inetd seem to stop, do a clean replace, and
restart, during an upgrade, so they always upgrade cleanly (except for
not being availble during upgrade). Correct?
*Things like X or gnome-applications which may be running during an
upgrade do get upgraded, but until you restart those applications, the
old versions are running, and your settings files could potentially get
hosed if the upgrades are radical. So basically you need to exit and
restart X if gui-ish things in use are upgraded. Correct?
*Some libraries are static-linked, so if they are upgraded, no running
binaries are affected. (Only next time you compile a program).
Dynamically linked libraries require your apps to be restarted.
Correct?
What I usually do is see what's upgraded, and if many running things are
upgraded, I log out of everything and then log back in, but I never
reboot. Is this the right thing to do, or is it unnecessary?
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