[NBLUG/talk] apt == dangerous

Kyle Rankin kyle at nblug.org
Sat Apr 22 18:15:56 PDT 2006


On Sat, Apr 22, 2006 at 06:09:00PM -0700, A'fish'ionado wrote:
> I'm pretty certain it was upgrade, not dist-upgrade, which is why I
> thought I was safe. :-P
> 

Hmmm... apt-get upgrade doesn't ever remove packages. When a new package
shows up that requires some other package be removed, APT will hold back
the package (if you use apt-get upgrade you'll occaisionally see a list of
held back packages at the top). The only way to get that package upgraded
at that point is to either dist-upgrade, or explicitly install that
package, in which case APT will warn you that it will remove the package
and ask you to confirm.

Basically, you shouldn't ever use dist-upgrade unless you are migrating
from stable to testing to unstable. Otherwise always use apt-get upgrade
and then use apt-get install for held-back packages, and in that case audit
what apt-get install wants to do to make sure it doesn't remove anything
important.

-- 
Kyle Rankin
NBLUG President
The North Bay Linux Users Group
http://nblug.org
IRC: greenfly at irc.freenode.net #nblug 
kyle at nblug.org



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