routine debian upgrades, a few questions

[Sean McMahon]

The apt howto gives some good methods for troubleshooting the upgrade process
when need be.    Whether you want the recommended or suggested packages depends
on your situation and the package.  That's why I like to use aptitude to view
what the new recommendations and suggestions are.  For example, emacspeak
doesn't depend on emacspeak-ss which has most of the speech servers.  But,
emacspeak-ss is in one of the recommended or suggested lists.  Some of the
decktalks are available to install within emacspeak installation, so users of
those don't necessarily need the speechserver for the braille'nspeak which is
one of the servers under emacspeak-ss.  Documentation packages usually come in
the suggested list.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Charles Hallenbeck" <chuckh at hhs48.com>
To: "Speakup Distribution List" <speakup at speech.braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2005 3:10 PM
Subject: routine debian upgrades, a few questions


> 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.
>
> 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?
>
> 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.
>
> Chuck
>
>
> -- 
> The Moon is Waxing Gibbous (68% of Full)
> But you can still get downloads from http://www.mhcable.com/~chuckh
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup