[ILUG] Debian stable / testing

[Rick Moen]

Quoting raoul duke (dr_gonzo at redbrick.dcu.ie):

> i'm told though, that testing is as stable or even more stable than most
> distros. i also hear that testing is set to be released some time this year
> so doesn't really matter all that much.

I need to quibble a bit, because people get confused between the names
of branches and the functional names (what I call "tracks").

The names "stable", "testing", and "unstable" _aren't_ the names of
releasable Debian branches; they're designations for a set amount of
figurative distance from the bleeding edge.  Thus, "testing" will _not_
ever be released; it will always exist as one small step back from
"unstable".  (The testing branch gets automatically populated from
packages that show up in unstable and pass certain automated
quarantining tests for quality.)

Those names are implmented as symbolic links in the Debian package
mirror sites.  Currently, they're linked like this:


   stable  ->  woody  aka Debian 3.0
   testing ->  sarge  (not yet assigned a release number)
   unstable -> sid

Let's say (for the sake of illustration) that the Debian Release Manager
specifies "andy" for the name of the next development version following
"sarge".  (That was the name of the protagonist boy in "Toy Story" and
its sequel, from which all Debian branch names so far have been drawn.)

At the point when the Debian R.M. declares sarge ready to be "released",
all that happens is repointing of the track symlinks:

   stable  ->  sarge
   testing ->  andy
   unstable -> sid

The name of the branch pointed to by the unstable track symlink is
permanently set at "sid", who in the movie was the vicious neighbour boy
who delighted in destroying toys.  (The unstable track gives you
immediate access to uploaded packages from the 1000+ official Debian
developers, without quarantining.)

For someone with a running system, it really doesn't matter at all
whether "releases" occur.  Those are relevant mainly for people doing
installations, who care (e.g.) whether installers' kernels and hardware
autodetection will find all their hardware.

For example, the server I'm sending this mail from is set to follow the
Debian "testing" track.  At the moment, that happens to be some set of
packages from the Debian package mirror sites designated as "sarge", but
the latter fact really doesn't matter to me.  About every week, I do
"apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade" to pull down relevant updates
to the entire system, thus following the gradually evolving testing
"track" as it moves forward.  At the time the sarge+1 branch ("andy" in
the above hypothetical) becomes the new testing branch, my system will
smoothly transition onto that via relinking of the symlink, but I might
not even notice that it's done so.

-- 
Cheers,                           "This is Unix.  Stop acting so helpless."
Rick Moen                                               -- D.J. Bernstein
rick at linuxmafia.com