Question 2 of 3: Ubuntu - apt-get and Update Manager

[C de-Avillez]

On Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:50:01 +1000
Basil Chupin <blchupin at iinet.net.au> wrote:

> By this I mean: I used apt-get update/upgrade and I had upgrades 
> installed; I then followed this up with the Update Manager "just for 
> kicks" and found that it picked up more apps to be upgraded - and I 
> don't mean just one or two but possibly 10. This was a while back
> and now I do this everyday - and it happens almost every time:
> apt-get does its job and then Update Manager finds more and all this
> within moments of apt-get finishing.
> 
> Anyone have a suggestion why this occurs?

From 'man apt-get':

* upgrade is used to install the newest versions of all packages
  currently installed on the system from the sources enumerated
  in /etc/apt/sources.list. Packages currently installed with new
  versions available are retrieved and upgraded; under no
  circumstances are currently installed packages removed, or packages
  not already installed retrieved and installed. ***New versions of
  currently installed packages that cannot be upgraded without
  changing the install status of another package will be left at their
  current version.*** An update must be performed first so that apt-get
  knows that new versions of packages are available.

* dist-upgrade in addition to performing the function of upgrade, also
  intelligently handles changing dependencies with new versions of
  packages; apt-get has a "smart" conflict resolution system, and it
  will attempt to upgrade the most important packages at the expense
  of less important ones if necessary. So, dist-upgrade command may
  remove some packages. The /etc/apt/sources.list file contains a list
  of locations from which to retrieve desired package files. See also
  apt_preferences(5) for a mechanism for overriding the general
  settings for individual packages.

So, if you are doing 'apt-get upgrade', (1) no package is ever
removed; (2) no non-installed package is installed (because a new
version of an installed package now has a new dependency). As a
result, a package update will be bypassed if either (1) or (2) applies.

Update Manager defaults to something similar to 'apt-get
dist-upgrade', and will install/remove packages as needed.

Cheers,
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