On Thu, 2 Aug 2018, Richard Owlett wrote:
For the first time I did a system upgrade against the online repository.
In the past, due to local conditions, my upgrades were by doing a fresh
install from purchased DVD sets of latest point release.
I was greeted by list of locales to added or upgraded. Not seeing any possible
harm I allowed it. I then got a screen asking to accept my current locale. If
it already knew my locale, why didn't just initially ask if I wanted my
current locale updated?
I was then greeted with choices to update several subsystems. I rather blindly
accepted the recommendations. The explanations display seemed safe - would
they be of use or just add bloat?
I found Synaptic's Help - un-helpful (didn't give enough info on what was
happening). Is there a web page aimed at a beginner/intermediate user to
understand what is happening?
TIA
What problem are you trying to solve? https://wiki.debian.org/Synaptic
says synaptic is "targeted at ease of use" so maybe that is why it
does not have the helpful additional info you are looking for?
On the other hand, each pkg can include scripts that run before or after
installation. That may be why you were asked a question. I think there
may be several ways to do it, but debconf https://wiki.debian.org/debconf
is probably the way it is handled for most pkgs?
Every pkg has a changelog, a debian changelog, sometime a NEWS.debian, and
usually one or two readme files at /usr/share/doc/<pkgname> so maybe
looking up the readme for pkg locales will answer one of the questions.
good wiki here also https://wiki.debian.org/DebianPackageManagement