On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 11:22:04AM +0100, Peter Keel wrote:
> Yes, but that's absolutely painless.
I also regret the times when Debian was only releasing every 3 years or
so, however, the current release cycle is not that fast, you still have
two years between upgrades, and obsolescence is usually announced one
year ahead.
I still prefer Debian over Ubuntu, even installed minimally, because
Debian has less "weight" (although it's increasing: I have for example
seen with horror that I was touched by the python security bug, because
Debian installed python for the ssh-blacklist package -- it's
unfortunate those dependancies leak in ...).
Remember: the more packages you have installed, the more the
administrative overhead will cost.
I suggest the following, after the upgrade:
> sed -i s/etch/lenny/g /etc/apt/sources.list
> apt-get update
> apt-get dist-upgrade
- start aptitude, check if there are any Obsolete or locally
installed packages, remove them, and possibly find new packages to
replace them. If you don't do this, those packages might be a
security hazard (or just an administrative cost).
- maybe use apt-get autoremove (but see below) to get rid of
unnecessary installed packages (less packages == less work).
- maybe use deborphan to locate unused packages, and remove it.
It is always a good idea to read the release notes before upgrading
(see http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/). There are many advices
there for what to do BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER the upgrade.
Other ideas:
- I use OpenVZ as a fast, efficient, simple: in a word UNIX-ish
virtualization plateform; keeping the host system as simple
as possible, basically a hardware layer.
Thus non host updates can be tested first on a VZ copy; host updates
can be attempted first on similar hardware, especially if you
already have some sort of high availability in place.
- don't forget to check whether you have added any non standard
sources.list entries, those packages are not supported by Debian on
upgrades. Of course you haven't installed any package by hand with
dpkg -i or converted with alien/rpm that you found on the Internet I hope
:)
- if you use special administrative tricks (for example package
diversions, package holds), be sure to check for them before and
after upgrading.
- it is generally assumed that any local changes to the system
will be done in /usr/local and never to installed packages
themselves (diversions come handy here!). Locally installed software (in
/usr/local or /opt) is usually not touched by system upgraded, don't
forget to update it as necessary yourself.
- if you use aptitude, beware of the autoremove features.
- use FAI for easy service / system installation (class-based,
reproductible)
For those who don't know, diversions are a way to tell the packaging
system that when it updates a file, it should update it elsewhere. This
paves the way for seemless patching and wrapper scripts in-place.
Holds are ways to tell the system to never touch (upgrade) a package.
There are unfortunately two incompatible holds in Debian: apt/dpkg and
aptitude.
Recommended books: The Debian system : concepts and techniques,
1-59327-069-0; Cahiers de l'Admin: Debian GNU/Linux
(http://www.ouaza.com/livre/admin-debian/extrait-apt.pdf)
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