It also removes old packages if needed for the upgrade.

Apt upgrade vs full-upgrade vs dist-upgrade. Apt-get update updates the package sources list to get the latest list of available packages in the repositories and apt-get upgrade updates all the packages presently installed in our Linux system to their latest versions. Please support me on Patreon. Its usually safe to use this command but when in doubt you can try an apt upgrade command first to see which if any packages get held back.

The idea is that apt-get upgrade only upgrades individual packages whereas apt-get dist-upgrade upgrades the whole distribution. The full-upgrade command is less conservative The dist-upgrade is for upgrading from Stretch to Buster for example. In this tutorial we look at apt-get upgrade and apt-get dist-upgrade commands and seek to understand the difference and when each is used.

This is why you first want to update. Apt upgrade will upgrade currently-installed packages and install new packages pulled in by updated dependencies. A deep dive into the difference between command line apt-get and command line apt for updating and upgrading with update upgrade dist-upgrade and full-upgrade.

Dist-upgradefull-upgrade will remove packages that were automatically installed installed as dependants of manually selected packages as needed to satisfy package upgrade dependency conflicts. The various dist-upgrade and full-upgrade variants will upgrade currently-installed packages install new packages introduced as dependencies and remove packages which are broken by upgraded packages. Or from Debian Buster to the next Debian release.

Difference between unattended-upgrade apt-get dist-upgradeHelpful. There is some difference between these two ways that often confuse users. Please support me on Patreon.

One is apt-get upgrade and the second one is apt-get dist-upgrade. It looks to me apt full-upgrade does the same thing as apt-get dist-upgrade. This is the short version of the answer.