How do I upgrade a single package from backports

novice · 2024-10-18 12:51:28

Greetings fellow bunsenlabedonians (I'm in a good mood today)
Can someone please educate me here, because I'm a bit confused? I was wanting to upgrade clipman to the newer version in the bookworm-backports. I added the backport repositories, updated and then used 'apt-get install --only-upgrade'. It's saying that the package can't be upgraded because it isn't installed, but if I do 'apt list' it shows up as installed. I know I could probably uninstall it and then install the new version, but before I do, I just wanted to try and understand what on earth is going on.
P.S. While I was using the terminal I noticed another weird thing, but I'll ask about that in another post.

hhh · 2024-10-18 12:57:20

Always install packages from backports individually, meaning don't dist-upgrade the whole system to backports. You do it by using the target switch (-t), so...

sudo apt install -t bookwork-backports clipman

Further reading...

https://backports.debian.org/Instructions/

novice · 2024-10-18 15:23:43

Thanks HHH
No, I had no intention of doing that. I was going to remove the repos once I installed this particular app. I was just a bit worried that, if it wasn't detecting the app was installed, installing it again might cause some kind of conflict. Do you think it will be OK, or should I uninstall this one first?

Bearded_Blunder · 2024-10-18 22:59:18

I've never run into any issues upgrading an individual package from what's in stable to the one in backports, at least, not other than having whatever bugs the package has on the Debian bug tracker for the version involved, which you can look up if you so wish.

Usually it eliminates bugs rather than introducing new ones for the occasional package when I'm interested in getting newer than what's in stable.

I can't tell you from experience with clipman, since it's a package I usually uninstall rather than upgrade to bleeding edge.. I can't personally recall any occasion I've wanted to use it at all, much less upgrade it to bleeding edge.

johnraff · 2024-10-19 01:55:56

The advice about using backports is correct of course, but in the particular case of clipman:

There is no backported version of clipman in any of the repositories.
The homepage on GitHub referred to in the Debian docs no longer exists.

But there is another package xfce4-clipman which does have a version in bookworm backports.

novice · 2024-10-19 21:49:42

johnraff wrote:

But there is another package xfce4-clipman which does have a version in bookworm backports.

I'm confused. I thought the clipman we have on bunsenlabs WAS the xfce4-clipman. All the files I can see on the system refer to xfce4-clipman. Is it not that one on here?

johnraff · 2024-10-20 04:41:45

novice wrote:

I thought the clipman we have on bunsenlabs WAS the xfce4-clipman.

That is correct. The package name is 'xfce4-clipman' but it sometimes refers to itself as "Clipman".
Unfortunately there is another package whose name is 'clipman', which you appeared to be asking about in your first post.
Hence the confusion.

https://packages.debian.org/search?suit … e4-clipman
https://packages.debian.org/search?keyw … ection=all

novice · 2024-10-20 10:31:55

Sorry John, my fault, I should have been clearer. It's xfce4-clipman that comes already installed I am talking about. When I try to upgrade it, I get the message it can't be upgraded because the package isn't installed, but it obviously is. apt list xfce4-clipman detects it as installed, but upgrade doesn't. It's not a big deal, I can uninstall this version and install the newer one. It just bugs me a little when I can't figure out why something doesn't seem to be working as expected.
You'd laugh if I told you why I wanted to upgrade it, but let's say there is a cosmetic issue my OCD needs putting right, that is addressed in the newer version

johnraff · 2024-10-21 05:19:40

novice wrote:

It's xfce4-clipman that comes already installed I am talking about. When I try to upgrade it, I get the message it can't be upgraded because the package isn't installed, but it obviously is. apt list xfce4-clipman detects it as installed, but upgrade doesn't. It's not a big deal, I can uninstall this version and install the newer one. It just bugs me a little when I can't figure out why something doesn't seem to be working as expected.

If you want to figure it out, could you try this?

First enable backports as @hhh suggests, and then confirm xfce4-clipman is available in the backports with:

apt policy xfce4-clipman

You should see something like this in the output:

xfce4-clipman:
  Installed: 2:1.6.2-1
  Candidate: 2:1.6.2-1
  Version table:
     2:1.6.5-1~bpo12+1 100
        100 https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports/main amd64 Packages
 *** 2:1.6.2-1 500
        500 https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Note the entry for bookworm-backports.

Then try the upgrade again, using the code suggested by @hhh (but with the correct package name):

sudo apt install -t bookwork-backports xfce4-clipman

novice · 2024-10-21 10:44:52

I am so stupid. When I read your instructions I thought 'what's he talking about, I've already done that'. But I thought I'd give it a another try and it worked this time. I've had a look back to see if I did anything wrong last time and I did. When I tried hhh's suggestion, I'd scrolled back and modified my previous attempt adding the '-t bookworm-backports' bit, but I forgot to take out '--only-upgrade'. I still don't see why that would make a difference, but that's the only thing I've done different this time. I think it's a bad habit I have of going back through the terminal history and finding a command similar to what I want, then changing it. I'll have to stop being lazy and type the whole line in.
Anyway, thanks John and hhh. You got it done for me. Now my tint2 panel is perfect!

johnraff · 2024-10-22 00:09:23

novice wrote:

I think it's a bad habit I have of going back through the terminal history and finding a command similar to what I want, then changing it.

I don't think that's such a bad habit. I hate typing and often use the history like that. Just make sure you edit it correctly!

#1 2024-10-18 12:51:28

How do I upgrade a single package from backports

#2 2024-10-18 12:57:20

Re: How do I upgrade a single package from backports

#3 2024-10-18 15:23:43

Re: How do I upgrade a single package from backports

#4 2024-10-18 22:59:18

Re: How do I upgrade a single package from backports

#5 2024-10-19 01:55:56

Re: How do I upgrade a single package from backports

#6 2024-10-19 21:49:42

Re: How do I upgrade a single package from backports

#7 2024-10-20 04:41:45

Re: How do I upgrade a single package from backports

#8 2024-10-20 10:31:55

Re: How do I upgrade a single package from backports

#9 2024-10-21 05:19:40

Re: How do I upgrade a single package from backports

#10 2024-10-21 10:44:52

Re: How do I upgrade a single package from backports

#11 2024-10-22 00:09:23

Re: How do I upgrade a single package from backports

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