Chapter 9. APT - clarify apt dist-upgrade

cocobongo

Hello,

In chapter 9. APT - Installing/Removing/Upgrading Packages with apt it is mentioned that:

dist-upgrade will not update to a whole new distribution version as is commonly misunderstood.

However, there's no further explanation about what dist-upgrade does or when should be used?

coop

After you run "apt update" (which updates all repo information) "apt dist-upgrade" or "or apt upgrade" does the actual packaging updates. There are differences between these two upgrade commands and I would recommend you do some homework out on the Internet to see the difference. "dist-upgrade" is more thorough than the other command and the only one I use but I'm sure there are reasons people will say just "upgrade" is safer, although I am not a believer. To completely update to a new version -- say 20.04 to 22.04 -- is a different command altogether.

cocobongo

Thank you, I will definitely look into it as I had the exact impression as described that should only be used when upgrading between major versions.