My common steps to do a dist-upgrade to a new Debian stable release. Based on https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html but optimised for direct copy and paste, i.e. no italic ''step'' pseudo-variables necessary. And it of courses uses aptitude interactively to [[http://www.infodrom.org/Debian/mike.html|upgrade machines while keeping services downtimes as short as possible]].

= Start the session =

== Debian ==

=== Jessie to Stretch ===

{{{
export new=stretch
export old=jessie
}}}

=== Stretch to Buster ===

{{{
export new=buster
export old=stretch
}}}

=== Buster to Bullseye ===

{{{
export new=bullseye
export old=buster
}}}

=== Bullseye to Bookworm ===

{{{
export new=bookworm
export old=bullseye
}}}

== Devuan ==

=== Ascii to Beowulf ===

{{{
export new=beowulf
export old=ascii
}}}

== Generic ==

{{{
screen -U
script -t 2>~/upgrade-${new}.time -a ~/upgrade-${new}.script
}}}

= Common Checks =

{{{
dpkg --audit
dpkg --get-selections "*" > ~/curr-pkgs.${old}.txt
aptitude search "~ahold"
dpkg --get-selections | grep 'hold$'
}}}

== Check if all packages are uptodate and if there are obsolete and local packages installed ==

{{{
aptitude -u
}}}

= Make LVM snapshots if needed/wanted/possible =

{{{
lvcreate -L 3G -n root-${old} -s /dev/*vg*/root
lvcreate -L 5G -n var-${old} -s /dev/*vg*/var
lvcreate -L 1G -n log-${old} -s /dev/*vg*/log
}}}

= Disable config management, etc. =

{{{
zile /etc/default/aptitude-robot
}}}

= Do the upgrade step by step with aptitude =

{{{
sed -e "s/${old}/${new}/gi" -i /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list
sed -e 's:bullseye/updates:bullseye-security:g' -i /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list
aptitude -u
}}}

= Enable automatic package updates again =

{{{
zile /etc/default/aptitude-robot
}}}

Running this will enable the remaining disabled stuff anyways.

= Reboot =

{{{
shutdown -r now "New kernel after dist-upgrade to ${new}"
}}}