OK, so now that sarge is being supported by debian projeect for security updates, it is probably very close to golden. So I would like to upgrade.

But it is not clear to me what is the recommended best practice for a full version (kernel) upgrade?

Ideally I would like to just be able to use apt-get and not have to do a backup and reinstall of all my current data and apps and packages and config settings. But one key feature that I am looking for in sarge is the large file ( > 2GB) support.

What is the recommended procedure?

Thanks.

In Debian, there are 3 distributions: stable, testing, and unstable. Unstable is always called "Sid". Right now, stable is called "Woody" and testing is called "Sarge", but with Sarge frozen, this will change soon.

If you wish to upgrade to testing, then you should change each instance of the word "stable" to "testing" in the file "/etc/apt/sources.list" - then run an apt-get update, and then an apt-get dist-upgrade. Dist-upgrade will tell apt to try to upgrade all your packages, even if that means removing some obsoleted ones or installing new prerequisites.

If you just want to use "Sarge" when it becomes the stable distribution, you just have to wait until it releases (it should be around the end of this month, May 2005 - see here). Then run apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade.

Good luck! Beware that whichever method you mean (Testing or Sarge/Stable) to use, it will probably take a while to download and install all the packages. Good luck!

I have upgraded tons of time from woody to sarge using the sources.list method and never had a problem, never did a backup of my data before the update.

Sarge's official release notes contain an upgrade section. Definitely worth reading.
http://www.debian.org/releases/testing/releasenotes