lina wrote:
> I use aptitude safe-upgrade,
On which release track? Stable? Testing/Unstable?
Stable typically only needs safe-upgrade. But sometimes for point
releases and for some security upgrades will need a dist-upgrade.
Testing/Unstable by comparison typically always uses dist-upgrade.
> so there are some packages un-upgraded,
> just curious, in future what's going to happen?
>
> 0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 72 not upgraded.
A safe-upgrade requires that no packages be removed and no new
packages be added. Additionally other constraints such as Recommends
versions are not broken.
In Sid packages are always being split and joined and new dependencies
added and removed. "Always in motion Sid is." In order to change the
list of package names installed on a system the dist-upgrade is needed
and so for Sid Unstable and for Testing dist-upgrade is the normal
upgrade method.
In Stable packages are frozen. That is the point of Stable. A
production system needs to not be changing behavior. But there are
security upgrades. That will patch a package in place. No new
packages will be introduced[1]. No packages installed will be
removed. The behavior of the system will be maintained. Security
upgrades are very safe.
[1] Not quite true. There are a handful of cases where a security
upgrade will add or remove package and will need a dist-upgrade. But
those are the exceptions to the rule and not the general rule.
On Stable production systems I only do safe-upgrades ('apt-get
upgrade' for me) and then only for those rare times when I find that
insufficient do I examine the action carefully and carefully apply a
dist-upgrade to the system. And then in all cases only after other
test victim machines have been upgraded first and I feel confident in
the upgrade.
On Sid testing victim systems I routinely apply dist-upgrade daily
without thinking. They are there for finding problems and if they
have a problem it is by design on a machine that is okay to find
problems on. Then when things do break I jump in and debug them and
fix them and hopefully other people will already be there ahead of me
with solutions in the BTS. Sid should be run by people comfortable
with fixing an unbootable system. For example here is one from just
this week: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=646284
Or installing older versions of packages and holding them back such
as in: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=601601
Using aptitude you should be able to use the why and why not to have
it explain why packages are not being offered for an upgrade.
Personally I am an apt-get user and so will leave the exact syntax to
others to suggest. For the most part packages will be held back
during a safe-upgrade when the upgraded package has a new Depends
relation and needs to install an additional package.
Bob
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