apt-get not updating GUI packages?

[Hylton Conacher (ZR1HPC)]

Hi Liam,

On 2018/04/30 16:51, Liam Proven wrote:
> On Mon, 30 Apr 2018 at 16:36, Hylton Conacher (ZR1HPC) <
> hylton at conacher.co.za> wrote:
> 
>> Hi,
> 
>> I run Ubuntu 16.04 as a Dovecot mailserver and to keep the system
>> patched am religiously using ssh to sign into the machine and run both
>> of the following commands:
>> $ sudo apt-get update
>> $ sudo apt-get upgrade
> 
> That 2nd command should be
> 
> apt-get dist-upgrade
> 
> ... and "apt-get" is deprecated in recent years and the more modern version
> is:
> 
> apt update
> apt full-upgrade -y

Thank you for the command update, however the apt upgrade command 
revealed the same issue as its predecessor. As the mailserver has edited 
configuration files for fetchmail, Dovecot and a few others a 
full-upgrade is a little less desirable as reading the man page for apt 
scared me a little i.e.:  full-upgrade performs the function of upgrade 
but will REMOVE CURRENTLY INSTALLED PACKAGES IF THIS IS NEEDED TO 
UPGRADE THE SYSTEM AS A WHOLE.

If a full-upgrade is performed and then A edited file is deleted because 
the system no longer uses fetchmail for instance, this is a MAJOR train 
smash.

OK so I am a relative newbie to Linux and the cli but still.
Seeing as the packages that were stopped from upgrading do not indicate 
files I might need i.e. fetchmail, my questions still remains why apt 
will not update 5 files yet using synaptic via a GUI will especially 
since apt, I assume, is the back-end to Synaptic, or am I stuck using 
the GUI when I thought the CLI out manoeuvred the GUI?

As I hope you can see the bigger question is why Synaptic can upgrade 
the packages left by apt yet apt, apparently being the back-end to 
Synaptic, can't?

Regards
Hylton