Should I reboot after an update?

[Scott Kitterman]

On Saturday 10 February 2007 13:52, Damien Hull wrote:
> I'm running an Ubuntu Dapper server. Should I reboot after an update
> (upgrade)?
>
> I've asked this question on IRC. I was told by one person to reboot.
> However, others have told me that rebooting is only required when you
> get a new kernel. This brings me to my next question/problem.
>
> I've seen "linux-server" in the list of packages that are going to be
> updated. I can't remember if my kernel ever got updated though. I have
> more then one server and "uname -a" says I've got kernel
> 2.6.15-23-server on all of them.
>
> Does the kernel ever get updated on Ubuntu server?
> Should I reboot just to be safe?

Generally speaking kernel updates are the only ones you have to reboot for.

My uname -a on my Dapper box says:

2.6.15-27-server #1 SMP Fri Dec 8 18:43:54 UTC 2006 i686 GNU/Linux

Yes, you need to reboot to get the new kernel.

Scott K