I have a Debian 5 VPS which runs a LAMP stack and Redmine (Ruby) and DokuWiki for myself and some clients to use for organisational purposes.

A `apt-get upgrade` request says that a lot of packages will be held back, but a `apt-get dist-upgrade` request seems to result in a scary-looking (to me) list of packages that will be removed. Will I need them for LAMP?

Here's the story from the command line:

```
user@machine:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  bind9 bind9-host bind9utils dnsutils libapache2-mod-php5 libbind9-50 libdns55 libisccc50
  libisccfg50 liblwres50 mysql-client-5.1 mysql-server-5.1 mysql-server-core-5.1 php5 php5-apc
  php5-cli php5-common php5-curl php5-gd php5-imagick php5-imap php5-mcrypt php5-mysql
  php5-suhosin php5-tidy
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 25 not upgraded.
user@machine:~$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED
  libapache2-mod-php5 libdns55 libisc52 mysql-server mysql-server-5.1 php5 php5-cli php5-curl
  php5-gd php5-imagick php5-imap php5-mcrypt php5-mysql php5-tidy
The following NEW packages will be installed
  libdb4.8 libdns58 libisc50 liblqr-1-0 libltdl7 libonig2 libqdbm14
The following packages have been kept back:
  mysql-client-5.1
The following packages will be upgraded:
  bind9 bind9-host bind9utils dnsutils libbind9-50 libisccc50 libisccfg50 liblwres50
  mysql-server-core-5.1 php5-apc php5-common php5-suhosin
12 upgraded, 7 newly installed, 14 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 7698kB of archives.
After this operation, 25.9MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
Abort.

```

Is it safe to go ahead with the dist-upgrade?

Updating with output from `apt-get dist-upgrade -V`:

```
The following packages will be REMOVED
   libapache2-mod-php5 (5.3.5-0.dotdeb.1)
   libdns55 (9.6.ESV.R2+dfsg-0+lenny1)
   libisc52 (9.6.ESV.R1+dfsg-0+lenny2)
   mysql-server (5.1.54-0.dotdeb.1)
   mysql-server-5.1 (5.1.54-0.dotdeb.1)
   php5 (5.3.5-0.dotdeb.1)
   php5-cli (5.3.5-0.dotdeb.1)
   php5-curl (5.3.5-0.dotdeb.1)
   php5-gd (5.3.5-0.dotdeb.1)
   php5-imagick (5.3.5-0.dotdeb.1)
   php5-imap (5.3.5-0.dotdeb.1)
   php5-mcrypt (5.3.5-0.dotdeb.1)
   php5-mysql (5.3.5-0.dotdeb.1)
   php5-tidy (5.3.5-0.dotdeb.1)
The following NEW packages will be installed
   libdb4.8 (4.8.24-1~bpo50+1)
   libdns58 (9.6.ESV.R3+dfsg-0+lenny1)
   libisc50 (9.6.ESV.R3+dfsg-0+lenny1)
   liblqr-1-0 (0.1.0-1)
   libltdl7 (2.2.6b-2~bpo50+1)
   libonig2 (5.9.1-1)
   libqdbm14 (1.8.74-1.4)
The following packages have been kept back:
   mysql-client-5.1 (5.1.54-0.dotdeb.0 => 5.1.54-0.dotdeb.1)
The following packages will be upgraded:
   bind9 (9.6.ESV.R1+dfsg-0+lenny2 => 9.6.ESV.R3+dfsg-0+lenny1)
   bind9-host (9.6.ESV.R1+dfsg-0+lenny2 => 9.6.ESV.R3+dfsg-0+lenny1)
   bind9utils (9.6.ESV.R1+dfsg-0+lenny2 => 9.6.ESV.R3+dfsg-0+lenny1)
   dnsutils (9.6.ESV.R1+dfsg-0+lenny2 => 9.6.ESV.R3+dfsg-0+lenny1)
   libbind9-50 (9.6.ESV.R1+dfsg-0+lenny2 => 9.6.ESV.R3+dfsg-0+lenny1)
   libisccc50 (9.6.ESV.R1+dfsg-0+lenny2 => 9.6.ESV.R3+dfsg-0+lenny1)
   libisccfg50 (9.6.ESV.R1+dfsg-0+lenny2 => 9.6.ESV.R3+dfsg-0+lenny1)
   liblwres50 (9.6.ESV.R1+dfsg-0+lenny2 => 9.6.ESV.R3+dfsg-0+lenny1)
   mysql-server-core-5.1 (5.1.54-0.dotdeb.0 => 5.1.54-0.dotdeb.1)
   php5-apc (5.2.17-0.dotdeb.0 => 5.3.5-0.dotdeb.1)
   php5-common (5.2.17-0.dotdeb.0 => 5.3.5-0.dotdeb.1)
   php5-suhosin (5.2.17-0.dotdeb.0 => 5.3.5-0.dotdeb.1)
12 upgraded, 7 newly installed, 14 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 7698kB of archives.
After this operation, 25.9MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? 

```