And an authoritative answer would be very nice...[/quote]
But it has been answered many times if you search.
If you have updated with all the default settings that you get when you installed the rc version, you already have the full version on your machine.
The likelyhood of of a mass of updates being needed to take you from rc to full is very small, and there could even be no packages to update; the rc is after all a "release candidate" and could turn out to be the final release.[/quote]
If this question has been answered, "many times", how about providing a link? We're not the only ones asking this question, after all.
And yes, "there could even be no packages to update" is precisely the point - they would only be Level 1 and Level 2 updates, so I don't know what this point proves.[/quote]
Here you go then; an authoritative link:-
http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1581
and I quote from there:-
Upgrade instructions:
* To upgrade from a previous version of Linux Mint follow these instructions.
* To upgrade from Linux Mint 10 RC, simply apply any level 1 and 2 updates (if any) available in the Update Manager.