Like say you upgrade from MacOS 13 to 14. How does the OS still run when files are theoretically being replaced while the OS is still running.
In: 7
The updates aren’t applied until the files in question are closed. If it’s a minor program, it’s no problem to restart the individual program while the machine is running.
Even system services *could* be updated this way, by taking turns restarting system components without taking the entire system offline, but its tricky and often leads to unforeseen consequences if one important system service tries to “talk” to a different system service when one of them has been updated and the other hasn’t.
Because of this, most systems require a reboot before system updates take effect. A separate program loads before the rest of the operating system and does the house-keeping needed to “turn on” the new files that were downloaded, and either delete or back-up the old ones.
Many systems make backups of the previous system files in case you need to go back to the old version.
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