How To Simulate Linux Package Upgrade Without Installing Anything ( Dry Run )
Q. How do I simulate the upgrade first to confirm that the actions that would be taken are reasonable under Debian / Ubuntu Linux package management?
A. Dry run is really good idea under for all production servers. You can print the actions that would normally be performed, but don't actually perform them. This does not require root privileges. It is recommended that you simulate the upgrade first to confirm that the actions that would be taken are reasonable. The upgrade may be simulated by issuing the command:
# aptitude -s -y dist-upgrade
OR
$ sudo aptitude -s -y dist-upgrade
Sample output:
aptitude -s -y dist-upgrade Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done Reading extended state information Initializing package states... Done Reading task descriptions... Done Building tag database... Done The following packages are unused and will be REMOVED: libgssapi2 The following packages will be upgraded: libpcre3 1 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 0B/199kB of archives. After unpacking 119kB will be freed. Would download/install/remove packages.
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Related Other Helpful FAQs:
- Debian / Ubuntu Linux: Send Automatic Email Notification When Security Upgrades Available
- How do I update Ubuntu Linux softwares?
- How do I install or upgrade an RPM file or package under Red Hat / Fedora / Suse Linux?
- Debian / Ubuntu Linux: List All Packages Which Could be Updated and Applied to System
- How do I upgrade the kernel in Linux without compiling from source code?
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Tags: aptitude command, dependency tree, Package management, production servers, root privileges, Ubuntu Linux
July 8th, 2008 at 12:43 am
Vivek,
I totally agree with you. I don’t install anything without first doing a dry-run. Even if you are just installing a single package, it is good to do a dry run to make sure it works properly before really installing it.
On a side note, if you are installing a package using rpm, you can perform the following to test it before installing it.
rpm -ivh package-name.rpm –test
Ramesh
The Geek Stuff