apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade

[Tom H]

On Tue, Sep 14, 2010 at 5:55 PM, Patton Echols <p.echols at comcast.net> wrote:
> On 09/14/2010 10:41 AM, NoOp wrote:
>> On 09/13/2010 09:56 PM, Kaushal Shriyan wrote:
>>>
>>> What exactly apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade do and when
>>> should we use it.
>>
>> http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/lucid/en/man8/apt-get.8.html
>> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AptGet/Howto
>>
>> Note: The comments in the last regarding 'apt-get dist-upgrade' are only
>> partially correct; the command will perform an upgrade to a newer
>> version only if the appropriate files (/etc/apt/sources.list),  contains
>> references to a newer release package.
>
> So if I understand correctly:  The system I am typing on is still
> running karmic.  There is no reference in my sources.list to lucid, so
> running # apt-get dist-upgrade would NOT update my system to lucid.
> Right?

Yes.

> This raises the question, I think, of when I would use dist-upgrade
> instead of upgrade. Perhaps if something was not working or I was
> experiencing conflicts?

Or to ensure that a package is upgraded. See the 4th ".".

"apt-get upgrade":
. currently installed packages are upgraded
. currently installed packages are not removed
. currently not installed packages are not installed
. currently installed packages are not upgraded if they cannot be
upgraded without installing or uninstalling another package