On Wed 30 May 2018 at 10:37:32 -0400, John Cunningham wrote: > On Tue, May 29, 2018 at 5:37 PM Brian <a...@cityscape.co.uk> wrote: > > > On Tue 29 May 2018 at 15:52:12 -0400, John Cunningham wrote: > > > > > Not necessarily. Sometimes the dependencies get out of hand, like when a > > > big project adopts a small utility and then decides that the entire > > project > > > is a dependency for the tiny utility. It doesn't happen often, but it > > has > > > happened to me. I like that apt-get upgrade updates everything else. If I > > > decide I can stomach the other packages, I can always do a apt-get > > > dist-upgrade and install them. > > > > Your unfortunate (and undetailed) experience has to be balanced against > > the benefits which accrue to most users in having an up-to-date Debian. > > In my belief, it is right in the sweet spot in that regard. It provides > information and lets the user make the decision. It's much easier to do a > dist-upgrade than to find and remove unwanted packages.
I'm at a loss to understand the argument here. 'apt update/upgrade' also provides information that the user can act on. If a package on your system acquires a new dependency X, 'apt-get upgrade' will not upgrade it (is that really an upgrade? :) ) but apt upgrade will (if it does require the removal of an existing package). The question becomes: do you really want the system to be upgraded or only half-upgraded? -- Brian.
