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Re: upgrade - packages have been kept back



On Sb, 11 dec 21, 01:54:12, teamaster@mad-hatters-teatime.teanet.org wrote:
> On Fri, 10 Dec 2021 23:57:44 +0100
> Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Vi, 10 dec 21, 23:39:30, teamaster@mad-hatters-teatime.teanet.org
> > wrote:
> > > 
> > > in 2 things i am pretty sure, my first mail only john doe read
> > > completely, and a dist-upgrade will not work with this
> > > non-standard-debian.  
> > 
> > Based on the limited information you provided in your mail
> > `apt-get dist-upgrade` is a reasonable suggestion (even if my own 
> > preference would be `apt upgrade`, already mentioned by Greg).
> > 
> > If for some reason `apt-get dist-upgrade` didn't work I'm very much 
> > interested to learn about it.
> > 
> > > see posting to john doe, problem solved  
> >  
> > Good :)
> 
> Sorry.
> yes, you are right.
> I had misunderstood another post.
> i am confused about debian package managment.

That's fine, we all had to learn :)

Kernel packages change name over time to signal that modules (e.g. 
out-of-tree) must be recompiled for the newer kernel. As far as APT is 
concerned they are just different packages with some number in the name.

The package linux-image-amd64 doesn't actually contain the kernel, it's 
purpose is to pull (depend on) the latest kernel. However, this requires 
installing an additional package.

The command `apt-get upgrade` is only allowed to upgrade packages, not 
install or remove packages. The command `apt-get dist-upgrade` (named as 
such because it can *also* be used to upgrade to a newer distribution) 
is allowed to do both.

Over time it became clear that allowing installation of new packages is 
generally safe and also necessary for day-to-day maintenance (like in 
this case, for kernel upgrades within the same distribution) so when the 
`apt` command was introduced the semantics of `upgrade` were 
adjusted[1].

The equivalent of `apt-get dist-upgrade` is `apt full-upgrade`[2] and is 
rarely (if ever) needed on a stable system.

My general preference is to avoid using a bigger than necessary "hammer" 
(e.g. `apt-get dist-upgrade` instead of `apt upgrade`): it's a waste of 
energy and it increases the risk to hit your fingers ;)


[1] `apt-get` is used in many scripts and higher level tools so it's 
commands must stay compatible.
[2] arguably `full-upgrade` can be confusing as well, because it's used 
also for partial upgrades on testing or unstable systems.


Hope this explains,
Andrei
-- 
http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser

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