Solved Do I have to close down a program prior upgrade?

[CaffeineAddict]

The question is about Firefox but it applies to any other software as well.

When I do sudo apt upgrade to upgrade FF to new version, do I have to close FF down?
If not why not.

 

[dos2unix]

Usually not. The firefox you are running is in memory (RAM).
But the update won't actually take effect until you close firefox and re-open it.

When you re-open it you should see the new version.

To test this, you can click on the Help/About to see the current version.
Do the upgrade while firefox is open.

Then close firefox and re-open it. Check the version again.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Usually not. The firefox you are running is in memory (RAM).

But that firefox in RAM might use resources like open handles connected to old installment that is now gone due to upgrade, or not?

That is my main concern because in Windows world a program that is running will prevent upgrade exactly due to resources that are released only after program is closed down prior update, so the upgrade can't continue.

But I see upgrade works just fine on Linux despite all this, I wonder why?

 

[dos2unix]

But that firefox in RAM might use resources like open handles connected to old installment that is now gone due to upgrade, or not?

There are some cases where it isn't true. Sometimes it depends on how much RAM you have as well, and how much stuff you have open. But if you think about it, you have to be running the kernel in order to upgrade the kernel.

I can do a uname -a before the upgrade, during the upgrade, and even after the upgrade is done.
It never changes... until i reboot.

The point being, what you need in order to be running, is usually all in RAM.

If you have 8GB usually no problem 4GB is usually OK, 2GB can be problematic.
My three main daily drivers are are 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB..

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Now that I think of it, it makes sense because there are software packages that are running while upgrade process is working but those can't be simply shut down, like dependencies.

But apt purge handles the cleanup just fine of now old packages, so it makes sense, thanks.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Just on the Firefox subject, if the user is using a Debian-based distro, as the OP is, and using the apt version and not the snap version - in Terminal, a warning will be issued to close any open instances of Firefox before attempting to update.

I always follow that advice. If you choose not to, then I would have a backup of my profile safeguarded, or a current snapshot under Timeshift.

Better safe than sorry.

Wizard

 

[ron.alan]

But if you think about it, you have to be running the kernel in order to upgrade the kernel.

Not really. The kernel technically isn't upgraded. When you get a new kernel, you have the new one plus all of the old ones that haven't been deleted yet.

 

[MikeWalsh]

Not really. The kernel technically isn't upgraded. When you get a new kernel, you have the new one plus all of the old ones that haven't been deleted yet.

Mm-hm. This is the way mainstream distros handle it. You have a /boot directory with all your old kernels within, If you don't periodically clear out old kernels that you no longer want/need, you end up with the "out of space" warning.

Woof-CE's 'kernel-kit' builder, for us, creates a two-item package. Vmlinuz.....the kernel itself. And a matching 'zdrv' SFS.....which loads the kernel modules after the kernel itself is loaded into Puppy's 'virtual' file-system in RAM, but before the kernel is actually booted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

Among the Puppy membership, we have a few members who regularly run the newest kernel source code through the 'kernel-kit' and make these newer kernel packages available - to the rest of the community - through a dedicated Puppy kernel repo at Ibiblio.

If we want to upgrade/change/swap/try-out a newer or different kernel, we will swap vmlinuz + matching zdrv manually while Puppy is running. it won't make any difference to the system, since the entire thing is loaded into & running from that 'virtual' file-system in RAM. Thus, no difference is noticed until a re-boot is performed.

It's a different way of doing things, certainly, but it's not a 'bad' way.....and it's worked for us for more than 20 years.

(I keep a dedicated kernel directory on my secondary 'data' drive, containing a selection of recent kernels. I can swap back-and-forth through any or all of these whenever it suits me... Some kernels just suit certain hardware combos better than others do. Fact of life.)


Mike.

 

[dos2unix]

This article is 3 years old now.

Restarting and Offline Updates - Fedora Magazine

Why Fedora Linux has to restart for updates: Offline Updates, which keep your system up-to-date and reliable at the same time.

fedoramagazine.org

The Linux Kernel can change files without restarting, but the services or application using that file don’t have the same luxury. If a file being used by an application changes while the application is running then the application won’t know about the change. This can cause the application to no longer work the same way. As such, the adage that “Linux doesn’t need to restart to update” is a discredited meme. All Linux distributions should restart.