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[Brian Murray <brian@xxxxxxxxxx>]

** Changed in: apt (Ubuntu)
   Importance: Undecided => Wishlist

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1437035

Title:
  FEATURE: apt-get could use a dist-upgrade feature for packages

Status in apt package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  When you want to update just a specific package, you can do the
  following:

  apt-get install $PACKAGE

  and if $PACKAGE is installed, apt will update it to the latest
  available version in the repos.

  If you want to update an entire system, you can do:

  upgrade to upgrade all installed packages
  dist-upgrade to upgrade all installed packages AND install any new dependencies that may have been added

  It would be really cool if apt could do the same on the individual
  package level, e.g.

  apt-get package-upgrade $PACKAGE

  which would update $PACKAGE and all it's dependencies to the latest
  version.

  This resolves a couple things:

  1: apt install $PACKAGE is not obvious when dealing with packages that
  are already installed... why am I installing again, instead of
  upgrading?

  2:  Some packages don't specify required VERSIONS of their
  dependencies, so you can encounter a situation where you do this:

  apt-get install $PACKAGE

  and find that $PACKAGE no longer works because a dependency was not
  also updated due the $PACKAGE's maintainer not specifying a certain
  version for the dependencies.

  Having a dist-upgrade like feature at the package level would ensure
  that when you update an individual package, you also update all it's
  dependencies as well, helping to ensure no more broken packages or
  tools and making user experience better.

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