dist-upgrade
also: apt dist-upgrade, apt-get dist-upgrade, full-upgrade
A package manager command that upgrades all installed packages to newer versions while intelligently handling dependency changes and removing packages if necessary. It's more aggressive than a standard upgrade.
dist-upgrade is a Debian/Ubuntu package manager operation (run via apt dist-upgrade) that performs a full system upgrade while resolving complex dependency chains. Unlike apt upgrade, which only upgrades packages without removing anything, dist-upgrade will remove older packages if needed to satisfy new dependencies.
For example, if upgrading package A requires version 2.0 of library B, but your system has version 1.5 and nothing else depends on it, dist-upgrade will remove the old version and install the new one. This is essential when upgrading to a new release of your Linux distribution.
The name comes from the original apt-get dist-upgrade syntax, where "dist" refers to a distribution upgrade. It's commonly used during major version upgrades (e.g., Ubuntu 20.04 → 22.04) to ensure the system transitions cleanly to the new release.