[vox] Sarge is frozen!

[Ken Bloom]

Bob Scofield wrote:
> On Tuesday 03 May 2005 13:52, Bill Kendrick wrote:
>
>>"Sarge is now frozen!   Wheeeeeee!!!"
>>
>>
>>
>>They're shooting for a release date of May 30th.
>
>
> Okay, since I'm new to Debian I guess I can ask this question.  What does
> "release" mean.  I've got Sarge and I download updates/upgrades *every day*.
> So does this May 30th release have any meaning for me?  My guess is that it
> does not.  I'm guessing that this means that if someone downloads Sarge after
> the release he or she gets the whole system, right?  And Sarge becomes
> "stable" then, is that right?

                 August 2002          May 2005
                      |                  |
unstable  (sid) -----------> (sid) ------------> (sid)
testing   (woody) ---\---->(sarge) ----\-------> (etch)
stable    (potato)    \---> (woody)     \------> (sarge)


Debian keeps several levels of its distribution around. There's
unstable, testing, and stable.

New packages enter unstable on a continuous basis. They are tested by
the most daring of developers and users (I'm one such user). If they
last long enough without new release-critical bug reports being reported
against them, then they propagate into testing. Unstable always has the
code-name "sid". Sid was the kid in Toy Story who broke toys.

Periodically, (after going through a period of stabilization) Debian
releases a snapshot of testing, which it calls stable. At that time, the
code name that belonged to testing gets switched to stable -- by
changing a few symlinks on Debian's mirrors. A new code name is chosen
for testing (well, it was chosen a few months ago, so that a couple of
pacages explaining this system could refer to it by name), and testing
begins with the new code name, starting off as an exact copy of stable,
and then progressively having its packages changed.

So look at /etc/apt/sources.list. You'll see lines like this:
deb http://linux.csua.berkeley.edu/debian/ unstable main non-free contri
                                           ^^^^^^^^
                                   This is what your system is tracking


If your system is tracking unstable, then when Debian releases sarge,
the only thing you'll notice is developers getting a bit more
adventurous in their uploads.

If your system is tracking testing, then you'll probably notice a few
more packages getting updated right after the release -- these would be
all of the packages that didn't propagate into testing during the freeze.

If your system is tracking stable, then you'll have almost the entire
system upgraded the next time you run apt-get dist-upgrade. Then you'll
have only security releases until the next time Debian releases.

If your system is tracking sid, see unstable -- no changes have been made.

If your system is tracking sarge, then you'll stop seeing upgrades.

If your system is tracking woody, then you'll stop seeing upgrades. Even
security upgrades. You probably want to migrate over to sarge or stable
as soon as it is feasible to do so.

--
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See http://www.gnupg.org/ for info about these digital signatures.
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