difference between "do-release-upgrade" and "apt-get dist-upgrade"

[Tom H]

On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 10:15 PM, Christopher Chan
<christopher.chan at bradbury.edu.hk> wrote:
> On Tuesday, October 05, 2010 04:13 AM, Tom H wrote:
>> On Mon, Oct 4, 2010 at 4:03 PM, Alan Pope<alan at popey.com>  wrote:
>>> On 4 October 2010 19:25, Cybe R. Wizard<cyber_wizard at mindspring.com>  wrote:
>>>> If done, doesn't the apt-get method do just what 'release-upgrade -d'
>>>> or 'do-release-upgrade do'?  IIANM, there is no difference in the end
>>>> product; it's just easier on the inexperienced to not need to remember
>>>> all the different steps to do.
>>>
>>> No, as I mentioned in my other mail, do-release-upgrade and
>>> update-manager work around specific known quirks in the upgrade
>>> process that apt-get/aptitude/dpkg don't cater for themselves.
>>
>> The fact that do-release-upgrade is a comprehensive one-step solution
>> doesn't mean that you can't upgrade to a new release using "apt-get
>> dist-upgrade" or "aptitude full-upgrade". There are simply more steps
>> to take.
>>
>
> Alan is talking about circular dependencies and other such like rubbish.
> There have been those who hosed their installation because they used
> apt-get dist-upgrade to upgrade. And there have been those who have not
> been toasted by upgrading with apt-get dist-upgrade. It all pretty much
> depends on what you have or have not installed.

It depends on how different the version you're upgrading and the
version you're upgrading to are different. To upgrade with
dist-upgrade from 8.04 to 10.04, you'd most probably have to use many
steps and upgrade twice because of the udev and kernel changes (like
the upcoming upgrade from lenny to squeeze). To upgrade with
dist-upgrade from 10.04 to 10.10 is fairly simple.