apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade

[Christopher Chan]

On Tuesday, September 14, 2010 12:56 PM, Kaushal Shriyan wrote:
> Hi
>
> What exactly apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade do and when
> should we use it.
>

apt-get update will get the latest list of packages available for your 
release.

apt-get dist-upgrade is for upgrading to the NEXT release. On Ubuntu, 
apt-get dist-upgrade has the potential to break your installation. On 
the command line, you are to use do-release-upgrade if you wish to have 
a trouble free upgrade (or so it is supposed to be)

If on Debian, apt-get dist-upgrade away! You will only have a chance to 
do so every five years or so.

apt-get upgrade is what you want to install the latest versions of the 
packages for your current release.