[conspire] Ubuntu 9.04 (re-sending due to previously accidentally sent to Bcc instead of Cc conspire group)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Tony Godshall (tony at of.net):

> Me neither.  I've been through quite a few apt-get dist-upgrades
> myself.  Do back up first, of course, but they've been surprisingly
> uneventful for me.  Except maybe exim3 -> exim4.

Which are _different packages_ (thus the different package names).
The Apache httpd 1.3.x to 2.2 transition, same story: different
packages, ergo distinct package names.

Back when the distro's Exim3 package was phased out, and your system got
upgraded to a release that no longer had an Exim3 package, your Exim3
setup did not magically vanish.  It just didn't get an update, and you
were (if memory serves) offered a generic Exim4 setup.  Hypothetically,
if you were a diehard, I suppose you could keep running your buggy,
EOLed, 3.x MTA -- or you could bite the bullet and do the work to
construct a new MTA setup using either Exim4 or your choice of other
MTA.

I got caught napping on that one, just as I did when my old hardware was
destroyed by a lightning strike in 2009 and I was suddenly obliged to
configure Apache httpd 2.x, having only used 1.3.x until then.  However,
I was well aware that 1.3.x wasn't going to be available in the newer
Debian release I was using to install the replacement server:  I could
either grab a 1.3.x deb out of the package poors or do the reasonable
thing and cobble together a 2.x config.  

I did the reasonable thing, in both cases (Exim4 and Apach2).  I
grumbled, but can't say I didn't see it coming -- nor did I expect
Debian to automagically write conffiles for me for _very different_ 
packages based on my existing, different ones.

Tony, didn't we have this same conversation a couple of years ago?

> Interesting.  Keeping up religiously, or upgrading package by package
> when new features or security alerts catch your attention?  And do you
> do testing or unstable (or some more complex configuration)?

I could swear we had _that_ conversation a few years ago.

1.  Subscribe to and skim-read DSAs, act as appropriate on the 
rare ones that are relevant.

2.  Set up /etc/apt/sources.list to include both testing and unstable
packages, and use package pinning to get testing only except when the
admin adds '-t unstable' to the apt-get command.  Said option resolves
the cited package names from unstable, and its immediate dependencies
from unstable, without touching any other part of the system.