All currently supported Fedora releases, starting with Fedora 18, can be upgraded with FedUp. previous releases used PreUpgrade or the installation DVD, but users of older releases should back up their systems and perform a clean installation for best results.
Upgrading with FedUp
This is the recommended method to upgrade your Fedora system to Fedora 18 and newer. Note that FedUp is only available in Fedora 17 and later. For instructions on upgrading, refer to the Installation Guide or the FedUp page.
Upgrading directly using Yum
Upgrading directly from one release to the next using yum is not explicitly tested by Fedora QA and issues with it are not considered blockers for a release, but in practise it works for many users, probably due to our packaging guidelines providing detailed information on maintaining upgradability. To learn more, refer to Upgrading Fedora using yum.
Upgrading from a pre-release (Alpha, Beta, or other development snapshot) to the final release
If you are using a pre-release of Fedora, and want to know more about upgrading to the final release, refer to Upgrading from pre-release to final.
Using the DVD to upgrade
This was the recommended method for upgrading to releases up to Fedora 17. DVD upgrades are not available for later releases; instead, please use FedUp.
For upgrading to all releases up to Fedora 17, the process of using Anaconda installer to upgrade was the recommended and supported method and detailed in the Fedora Installation Guide. However, for best results when migrating from unsupported versions to newer versions, back up your user and configuration data and perform a fresh installation.
Tips
- It's a good idea to have a backup of your system before performing an upgrade. Keeping
/homein a separate logical volume or partition makes backing up user data easier, because the home partition can be reused when upgrading or reinstalling. This is the default from Fedora 13 onwards.
- Doing a clean installation and then restoring user data from backups may work better for some users. Future releases may include features to assist in this process. Refer to AnacondaWorkItems for more information.
- Make sure you read the Release Notes carefully before attempting an upgrade.
Rawhide
Rawhide is a development version of Fedora that is updated daily. It is suitable for people who are developing or testing Fedora before broad public release.
Packages in rawhide aren't inherently unstable, but interactions and dependencies between packages there can be unpredictable. The testing performed in release branches to prevent these conflicts isn't there in rawhide - or, more correctly, it happens in rawhide so that the release branches can benefit. Do not use Rawhide just for newer versions of a package; use it when you are an experienced user that wants to actively contribute to a stable rawhide.
- To move from Rawhide to a stable release, refer to Upgrading from pre-release to final.
- To move from a stable release to Rawhide, refer to Releases/Rawhide.