upgrading specific software in debian

[luv]

Hello,

I'd like to know how to update specific software in Debian either using apt-get or dpkg. For example, how do I update subversion (or any software)1.4 to 1.5 without deleting the previous installation? Is this possible?

Im still learning Debian, the hard way. Only command line for a headless server.

Thank you.

[jledhead]

generally when you upgrade a package the config files are kept, if they need to be overwritten the installer will prompt you if you want to keep your config or install the package maintainers files.

apt-get upgrade package-name

should do it.

if you want to see what it is going to do before actually upgrading you can do

apt-get -s upgrade package-name

and it will tell you what packages are being replaced. if its something you are worried about its a good idea to make a backup prior to upgrading anything

[luv]

Hi jledhead,

I tried that before posting here and I wondered why there are other applications affected when trying to update a single application. I know there are dependencies but Im not sure if those listed are to be upgraded. Here's the result:

apt-get upgrade subversion
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
clamav clamav-daemon clamav-freshclam libclamav3 linux-image-2.6-686
openssh-client openssh-server
The following packages will be upgraded:
apache2 apache2-mpm-prefork apache2-utils apache2.2-common bind9-host
bsdutils clamav-base clamav-docs cpio debconf debconf-i18n dnsutils
findutils grub initramfs-tools initscripts klibc-utils libapache2-mod-php5
libbind9-0 libc6 libc6-i686 libcupsys2 libdbi-perl libdns22 libgnutls13
libisc11 libisccc0 libisccfg1 libklibc libkrb53 liblwres9
libmysqlclient15off libpam-modules libpam-runtime libpam0g libpcre3 libpq4
libssl0.9.8 libxml2 linux-image-2.6.18-5-686 locales lvm2 mount mtr-tiny
mysql-client-5.0 mysql-common mysql-server mysql-server-5.0 openssl perl
perl-base perl-modules php5 php5-common php5-mysql postfix python2.4
python2.4-minimal samba samba-common selinux-policy-refpolicy-targeted
smbclient ssh sysv-rc sysvinit sysvinit-utils tar tzdata unrar unzip
util-linux
71 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 7 not upgraded.
Need to get 161kB/118MB of archives.
After unpacking 13.0MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?