UPGRADE-SYSTEM.CONF(5)

NAME
upgrade-system.conf - Configuration file for upgrade-system(8)

DESCRIPTION
upgrade-system.conf is the configuration file for the upgrade-system(8) Debian administration utility. This file specifies command options used for calling apt-get(8) and deborphan(1) within upgrade-system(8).

Lines starting with a hash mark ("#") and empty lines are ignored.

ENVIRONMENT
The configuration file may contain any of these environment variables:

  CLEANOPTS
This variable selects which one of autoclean or clean to execute as the apt-get(8) cleaning command. For example:

CLEANOPTS="clean"

Consult the apt-get(8) manual page to check which options are available for any particular APT version, before setting this variable.

  UPGRADEOPTS
This variable specifies which one of dist-upgrade or upgrade to execute as the apt-get(8) upgrade command and the command options. For example:

UPGRADEOPTS="--fix-broken --purge --show-upgraded dist-upgrade"

Consult the apt-get(8) manual page to check which options are available for any particular APT version, before setting this variable.

  ORPHANOPTS
This variable specifies deborphan(1) command options. For example:

ORPHANOPTS="--guess-all --libdevel"

One should read the deborphan(1) manual page to check which options are available for any particular version, before setting this variable.

  FLAUSCH
Setting this variable enables various extremely pedantic purge options.

This variable has no default value.

This feature is totally experimental; usage is strongly discouraged and should only be attempted by truly experienced Debian administrators. It can be used to sanitize a Debian system after a distribution upgrade or to detect packages that don't conform to the Debian Policy. Setting the variable as a command line environment, only when needed, is considered a safer approach than adding it to upgrade-system.conf variables.

sudo FLAUSCH=jawohl upgrade-system

FILES
Because upgrade-system is an APT front-end, all precautions relating to APT configuration should be observed. Special attention is required to:

/etc/apt/preferences

To prevent untested packages from overwriting stable ones, setting this combination of APT preferences is recommended:

    Package: *
    Pin: release a=stable
    Pin-Priority: 990
    Package: *
    Pin: release a=testing
    Pin-Priority: 500
    Package: *
    Pin: release a=unstable
    Pin-Priority: 100
    Package: *
    Pin: release a=experimental
    Pin-Priority: 1

This enforces a priority to packages from Stable, yet still allows ones from Testing, Unstable or Experimental to get installed via appropriate apt-get(8) options to override the default release.

NOTES
In the absence of a configuration file, upgrade-system(8) will take the above environment variable examples as fallback default values.

BUGS
Certain combinations of deborphan(1) options purge a dangerous quantity of packages, potentially leaving a system in a severely crippled state.

AUTHORS
Copyright © 2004-2020 Martin-Éric Racine <martin-eric.racine@iki.fi>
Copyright © 2004,2012 Christoph Schindler <hop@30hopsmax.at>
Copyright © 2003-2004 Martin Zdrahal <martin.zdrahal@konflux.at>

LICENSE
GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.

SEE ALSO
apt-get(8), apt_preferences(5), deborphan(1), upgrade-system(8).