Re: aptitude dist-upgrade wants to install 695 new packages
On Wednesday 17 May 2006 21:27, John O'Hagan wrote:
> On Wednesday 17 May 2006 14:59, rs wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> In other words, upgrade will hold back any package whose new version has
> new dependencies or requires the removal of any package. Dist-upgrade
> will install any new dependencies and remove any newly conflicting
> packages (it automatically decides which packages must go when there is a
> conflict, or you can control this by marking packages in various ways).
>
> So I'm afraid what you're asking is not possible: the packages you have
> installed must have their new dependencies if they are to be upgraded.
> And a major change like the one from stable to testing will usually bring
> in a lot of new dependencies.
>
There may not be a one command way to do this, but it can be done. The
simplest way is a 2 step process:
1) do your normal upgrade. Don't worry about packages that are held back.
2) after the upgrade, run aptitude in interactive mode. The packages that
were previously held back will be in the "upgradable packages" section.
Open that section, and for each package you want to upgrade, hit + Each
time you hit plus, other packages may be marked for install, removal, or
upgrade, depending on dependency needs (and aptitudes options: see below).
If you want to review what aptitude is proposing, hit g after each package
you mark, and review to make sure you're OK with aptitude's plan. If not,
use : to cancel the pending operation on a package by package basis.
Also, you'll want to look at the Options -> Dependency handling options, as
Wackojacko suggests. In addition to the option of installing recommended
packages by default, you also have the option to:
Automatically resolve dependencies of a package when it is selected
Automatically fix broken packages before installing or removing
Remove unused packages automatically
The last option also has a filter you can set to negate the global effect of
this option.
[snip]
Justin
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