How to use Topgrade to upgrade your Linux system

The Linux upgrade has become much easier than before. In the past, you could upgrade certain software, but for almost anything else, you would have to wait until you could buy the next version of the distribution you chose. After that, you install the new version with the upgraded software.

Package management systems have made this easier, but they cannot update every part of your system. What about the Ruby Gem or packages you have installed via a third-party package manager like Linuxbrew? How do you keep your configuration files synchronized?

What is Topgrade?

You can find out some information about what Topgrade will do by viewing its GitHub page. Reference links:

 https://github.com/r-darwish/topgrade 

Topgrade's slogan, written at the top of the page, is 'upgrade everything'. This is exactly what it can do.

Although we are focusing on Linux here, Topgrade also works on macOS and Windows. Topgrade is written in Rust, so it will be quite fast. Topgrade is also licensed under the GNU GPL 3.0.

What update Topgrade?

On Linux, it will upgrade your system through the package manager, but that's just the beginning. Topgrade will also upgrade Ruby Gem, Atom, Linuxbrew and nix packages, etc. Topgrade will also upgrade applications installed via Snap or Flatpak.

Topgrade can also upgrade a large part of your configuration files. It will upgrade the Vim or Neovim configuration, if you use NeoBundle, Vundle, Plug or Dein. If you use the Git repository for your dotfiles, Topgrade will also update any recent changes to them.

You can also add custom commands to Topgrade to run while upgrading. This is useful if you use some custom scripts that you want the update to take place automatically.

Install Topgrade

If you run Arch, Topgrade is available through the AUR package. If you use a different distribution, you will need to install Cargo, an installer for Rust packages. Fortunately, doing this is quite easy. On Ubuntu, you can install it with the following commands:

 sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install cargo 

After Cargo is installed, you can install Topgrade with the following command:

 cargo install topgrade 

If this does not work, or you do not want to install Cargo, the precompiled binary files are also provided through the page that introduces Topgrade releases on GitHub. Reference links:

 https://github.com/r-darwish/topgrade/releases 

Use Topgrade

Now, Topgrade has been installed. Updating your system is easy. To run Topgrade's basic update steps, enter the following command:

 topgrade 

If you want to add some custom commands or adjust Topgrade's behavior, you'll need to edit its configuration file. On Linux, this application is located at '~ / .config / topgrade.toml'. For example, if you have a list of Git repositories that you want to refresh, add the following to the file:

 git-repos = [ "~/my-repos/repo_name", ] 

For more information on adjusting the configuration file, see the Customization section on the Topgrade GitHub page. Reference links:

 https://github.com/r-darwish/topgrade 

Topgrade gives you more power to keep the system up to date. But if you just want to keep your system up to date and secure, using Topgrade seems a bit overkill. If you do not install many third-party software, you may not need to go to Topgrade.

If you just want to keep Ubuntu up to date but you are unsure how to do it, don't worry! This is a fairly simple and easy process. See TipsMake.com 's guide on how to upgrade Ubuntu via the command line.

Hope you are succesful.