dev wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone could offer some clarity on how best to
> apply patches on Debian derived systems? There are so many options
> across apt-get and aptitude... I cannot make sense of them all:
>
> apt-get upgrade
> apt-get dist-upgrade
> apt-get safe-upgrade
> aptitude upgrade
> aptitude safe-upgrade
> aptitude full-upgrade

aptitude is a front-end to the APT. apt(-get) dist-upgrade
"intelligently" manages dependencies, e.g. from recent update
on Sid: libpng12-dev was replaced by libpng-dev; with simple
apt upgrade libpng12-dev would be kept, but with dist-upgrade
it is being replaced.
"apt safe-upgrade" doesn't exist, only "aptitude safe-upgrade";
the first is comparable to
"aptitude --no-new-installs safe-upgrade".

In other words, "aptitude safe-upgrade" upgrades and can install
new packages, but never removes anything; "apt upgrade" never
installs or removes unmet dependencies; "aptitude full-upgrade"
is similar to "apt dist-upgrade".

Cheers,
Mitt