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Linux in-place upgrade?

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Weaver:
When I have been installing new versions of Windows NT family operating systems, I have tended to put a new blank hard disk in and do a fresh install onto that, migrating user data from the old disk after the new o/s is up and running. I’m a bit suspicious of the reliability of software that does an in-place upgrade.

I was thinking about upgrading the versions of Linux on my two Raspberry Pis. I read an article about an in-place upgrade of Debian buster to the next version, mildly scary. In my case, especially so, seeing as I only have SSH access, no KVM, no GUI, and if the new version decides not to serve SSH access from the word go, then I’m dead. Isn’t the SSH server availability controlled by the presence or absence of some file? Kindly fellow kitizens did this for me, and I can’t remember the details.

Anyway, would it be mad to risk an in-place upgrade? - assuming that I can even follow the instructions. The sane thing to do would be to get a second SD card and that can be a backup / fallback. But I’ve no idea how to connect such a thing.

parkdale:
I see no problem with in place upgrade... done this plenty of times, sudo apt-get dist-upgrade , or sudo apt-get full-upgrade. "Full" should solve any conflicts! if they arise. Then run sudo do-release-upgrade.
Follow up by reboot and running sudo apt-get autoremove

https://askubuntu.com/questions/81585/what-is-dist-upgrade-and-why-does-it-upgrade-more-than-upgrade

Chrysalis:
Should be fine, I routinely remote upgrade unix based server machines.

Its supported officially, just check the documentation before you start. :)

Alex Atkin UK:
Depends on the distro, I think there are still a few that don't officially support it and none will guarantee no problems.  Although I upgraded Fedora for 10 years before doing a complete reinstall.

tubaman:
If the distro you are using supports in-place upgrades then it should all go ok, but as I'm sure you're well aware there is no such thing as certainty in the IT world...
I'd back-up any important files first, but I'm sure you'd be doing that anyway.
If it were to fail you'd be in a similar situation to doing a clean install, except I suppose that you'd have no working system disk to fall back on if the new install didn't play nicely.

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