routine debian upgrades, a few questions

[Thomas Stivers]

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On Thu, Jun 16, 2005 at 06:10:43 PM -0400, Charles Hallenbeck wrote:
> I have a couple of questions someone may be able to answer for me. I am 
> using Debian sid (unstable) and do regular upgrades several times a 
> week, and some terms appear that I do not understand during that 
> process.
> 
> 1. Early in the "apt-get upgrade" process, it sometimes shows me 
> packages that are "kept back" and are therefore not upgraded. Why are 
> these kept back? I did not explicitly ask for them to be kept back.

When you are running unstable you are using the packages as they are
entering the big three debian distributions for the first time. Often
packages which you have installed have upgrades but those upgrades
depend on packages which are not available from the sid repository. You
just have to be patient and those dependencies usually resolve
themselves in time when the packages which the package you want to
upgrade itself gets upgraded. Haha did that muddy the waters enough for
you?

Just remember that "Sid breaks toys" so you are going to have weirdness
when you run unstable. Personally I think the problems I encounter serve
as learning experiences and keep me on my toes.

> 2. Maybe this only occurs when installing a new package rather than 
> during upgrades, but sometimes when doing an "apt-get install" for a 
> package, it first shows me "extra packages" that will be installed. That 
> one I understand. But then it may show me "Suggested packages" and 
> Recommended packages" which I might consider also installing. What are 
> these last two? suggested and recommended? For a while I followed up 
> each install with additional installs of both the suggested and 
> recommended packages, which of course led to other suggested and 
> recommended packages, and I am sure I could easily have done without 
> most of that stuff. Which are more important, the suggested list or the 
> recommended list?

I think these lists are just what they claim to be, the suggested
packages are ones the package maintainer suggests you have installed to
get the most out of the one you are installing. These often include
things like script packages for irc clients, plugins for music players,
Etc. The recommended packages are less likely to be parts of the
original package, but just things the maintainer thinks you would want
if you wanted the original package.

> These seem to be policy questions which I have not found discussed in 
> the docs I have read. Advice appreciated, including advice about what 
> FM's to R.

The apt Howto is out there somewhere and answers a lot of these kinds of
questions and so much more. I haven't read it through entirely, but it
has a lot of information about the topics you asked about.

If you go ahead and read it, then I will be able to ask questions about
it and won't have to read the whole thing. *chuckle*

HTH

- -- 
"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it." - Brian W. Kernighan

Thomas Stivers	e-mail: stivers_t at tomass.dyndns.org
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