Stretch perfect server upgrade (fresh install)

Hi guys,

I'm using the Stretch perfect server with apache and it works like a charm.
Couple of weeks after a fresh install I wanted to upgrade my server and naturally did an apt-get update and apt-get upgrade.
For some reason some packages are upgraded, while other are kept.
I know about apt-get policies and they can be defined, but what I don't get is why would some package be listed for upgrade and not be upgraded, I mean why the policy it set this way by default ?

I do not have added backport repo.
Should I care ? manually upgrade them "by force" like I do on my personal computer when a I need a package from backport ?
let it go ?

thank's in advance

here is my case

Code:

root@vpsXXXXXX:~# apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  linux-image-amd64 mariadb-client mariadb-client-10.1 mariadb-server
  mariadb-server-10.1 mariadb-server-core-10.1
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libmariadbclient18 mariadb-client-core-10.1 mariadb-common roundcube
  roundcube-core roundcube-mysql roundcube-plugins
7 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 6 not upgraded.
Need to get 8,784 kB of archives.
After this operation, 305 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y

 

Ok on this basis, should I also assume that debian will keep the "old" package forever and will "never" upgrade it automatically (I mean with and apt-get upgrade) ? Or that maybe debian just "skip" this upgrade but might install the next one ?

in the first case, indeed, we might want to force the upgrade, in the other, we may want to be patient.

 

If you using other repo e.g. mariadb or nginx, you may need to remove and reinstall that softwares for them to be upgraded to the latest from their repo, instead from the default debian repo. At least that is what I do in Ubuntu.

 

My guess is you need

Code:

apt-get dist-upgrade

The usual upgrade does not install previously uninstalled packages, neither does it remove packages.

 

No I'm not, I'm basically sticking to most genuine system for the sake of being in line with the debian approach (contrary to ubuntu with external apt repo), keep things as close as possible to the perfect server to ask support on a known environment, and learning and knowing what am I doing ;-)

yep
to my knowledge, I haven't unistalled any package manually, but a previous apt-get upgrade might (?)

 

The Debian version 9.6 was released recently, that may have introduced new packages and removed some old ones. If you

Code:

apt-get update

and see there are packages that are not upgraded, most likely dist-upgrade would install those. It is possible to find you why those packages are not being installed by update, first check if it is not yet installed and then check if it depends on some package that is not installed.

 

I guess you spot on !

a apt-get dist-upgrade
suggest me to install the 6 packages not installed above, plus update the kernel, my month old fresh install wasn't that recent anymore thou !

Thank's all guy for your replies, it helped to figure out what happens, why and how to proceed !
You're priceless