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apt-get and major version

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Adrian Hoe

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Jan 9, 2006, 12:21:52 PM1/9/06
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Hi,

I am new to Debian and especially apt-get. I had tried Google for this
issue but I could not fnd any. Perhaps I have an oversiht.

Will apt-get update to major version upgrade? For example Debian 2.x to
3.x or 1.x to 3.x

Thanks.
--
Adrian Hoe
http://adrianhoe.net

Florian Ernst

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Jan 9, 2006, 5:22:58 PM1/9/06
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On 9 Jan 2006 09:21:52 -0800, Adrian Hoe wrote:
> Will apt-get update to major version upgrade? For example Debian 2.x to
> 3.x or 1.x to 3.x

Yes and no. Basically Debian tries to ensure smoothless upgradability
between releases. Skipping intermediate releases, however, is not
officially supported, so it's preferrable to gradually update from one
release to the next.
Generally it's advisable to closely read the Release Notes for the
release to which one intends to update, please see
<http://www.debian.org/releases/> as well as further links for
details.

HTH,
Flo

Adrian Hoe

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Jan 9, 2006, 9:09:26 PM1/9/06
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Thanks Florian,

Does it allow to specify which release to update?

Say, I am on 2.x and there are 3.0, 3.1r0, 3.1r1.

SteveSch

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Jan 10, 2006, 12:33:31 AM1/10/06
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On Mon, 09 Jan 2006 18:09:26 -0800, Adrian Hoe wrote:

> Thanks Florian,
>
> Does it allow to specify which release to update?
>
> Say, I am on 2.x and there are 3.0, 3.1r0, 3.1r1.

Hi,

On http://www.debian.org/releases/ it will explain what the
names are.

2.2 potato
3.0 woody=OLD stable
3.1 sarge=CURRENT stable
etch=CURRENT testing
sid=CURRENT unstable

It will upgrade from potato to woody to sarge to........ In order. As the
other post says jumping is not recommended.

Steve

Adrian Hoe

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Jan 10, 2006, 8:17:20 AM1/10/06
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Ok. In order to update from potato to sid, I will have to do "apt-get
update" 4 times. Right?

Is there a way to tell which release I have currently?

Peter J Ross

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Jan 10, 2006, 9:24:59 AM1/10/06
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On 10 Jan 2006 05:17:20 -0800, Adrian Hoe <aby...@gmail.com> wrote in
alt.os.linux.debian:

> Ok. In order to update from potato to sid, I will have to do "apt-get
> update" 4 times. Right?

Yes.

Potato to Woody
Woody to Sarge
Sarge to Etch
Etch to Sid

You'll find detailed instructions here:
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference/ch-woody.en.html

At some point, apt's cache limit will probably be too small for the
number of new packages, so you'll have to do something like this, to
increase the cache limit:

# apt-get -o APT::Cache-Limit=16777216 update

Once you have Sarge, this shouldn't be a problem.

> Is there a way to tell which release I have currently?

The information is probably in /etc/debian_version, unless it was
included in a different file in old versions. If that doesn't work,
you can deduce a lot from the installed versions of packages,
especially the kernel.

Since you installed recently, you're unlikely to have a very old
version unless you used a very old CD. I'm betting you've got either
Woody or Sarge.


PJR :-)

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