Re: When to reboot after dist-upgrade?

["Rick Thomas" <rbthomas@pobox.com>]

I use the following little script.  If it produces output, then a reboot is desirable.

#!/bin/bash -p

set -x

PATH=/usr/bin:/bin

lsof +c0 -w | grep ' DEL  *REG  *[^0 ]' | egrep -v \ '(/var/lib/gdm3|/usr/share/mime|/home/[^/]*)/(.cache|.config|.local)'

What it does is look for library (and other) files that are in use but have been removed from the filesystem.  The "egrep -v" filters out some files that various utilities create, open, then delete without closing so that if the utility ends catastrophically without cleaning up, they don't hang around.  It's not perfect, but it does help.

Rick

On Sun, May 2, 2021, at 9:16 PM, Kenneth Parker wrote:

On Sun, May 2, 2021, 9:42 PM riveravaldez <riveravaldezmail@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi, sorry if this is not the place to ask (and in that case please

point me in the proper direction).

I'm trying to distinguish when a system reboot is an absolute need

and when it is absolutely safe to keep the system running/working

after a `sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade`, once

I have already performed a complete restart of all needed services

through `sudo needrestart' options in Debian testing.

In general, if the Kernel is updated, plan to Restart.  Usually, dist-upgrade is required, when Version Numbers change, requiring addition of new packages.  The Linux Kernel is a common (but not the only) reason for this. 

Also beware, because Debian occasionally will update the Kernel without updating the Version Number.  So it is possible that a Restart is required, without a dist-upgrade. 

Good luck! 

Kenneth Parker 

So, in a situation like this:

$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Reading package list ... Done

Creating dependency tree ... Done

Reading status information ... Done

Calculating the update ... Done

The following packages have been withheld:

   imagemagick inkscape libc-bin libc6 libc6-dbg libcrypt1

libpoppler-glib8 local openssh-client openssh-server

openssh-sftp-server ssh

0 updated, 0 new will be installed, 0 to remove, and 12 not updated.

$ sudo needrestart

Scanning processes...

Scanning processor microcode...

Scanning linux images...

Running kernel seems to be up-to-date.

Failed to check for processor microcode upgrades.

No services need to be restarted.

No containers need to be restarted.

No user sessions are running outdated binaries.

$ sudo checkrestart

lsof: WARNING: can't stat() fuse.gvfsd-fuse file system /run/user/1000/gvfs

      Output information may be incomplete.

Found 6 processes using old versions of upgraded files

(1 distinct program)

(0 distinct packages)

No packages seem to need to be restarted.

(please read checkrestart(8))

, would be perfectly safe and right to keep the system running or on

the contrary should I perform a (warm/cold?) reboot to be safe?

Thanks a lot in advance for any hint or info.

Kind regards.

PS: `apt-get dist-upgrade` output is translated to English..., system is

in Spanish and I keep not-remembering how to force console output

to English, sorry...