This question came to my mind mostly because I rarely restart my Linux laptop, so I wondered if this has any negative consequences. Updating is basically just patching applications, so I could imagine that some system applications aren't able to apply the patches because they keep running.
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In case of the update of the kernel, the system won't use the new kernel until the reboot.
In other cases you have to apply "common sense", for example:
A running application will continue working after the update and libs that have been replaced will be used when a program starts.
For example, you update tail because there was a security related fix.
It's overkill to reboot because of that. If there is a running tail -f over a log file then a simple restart of the logging script will be enough.
If the updated library is critical for the system because a lot of applications depend on it like ssl or glibc then it's a good idea to reboot after the update.
jcbermu
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It depends on the application... Take glibc and gcc as an example. Gcc is only used when compiling things, glibc is used in runtime. When executing gcc after the upgrade, linux will take files of the new version. On the other side, the new version of glibc is only used after a reboot.
licklake
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