[clug] Debian testing and sarge

[Steven Hanley]

On Fri, May 27, 2005 at 11:05:15AM +1000, Kim Holburn wrote:
> I guess at some point in the near future sarge will become testing.   
> Now I've never lived through a change like this;-)  I was wondering  
> what actually happens?  Some of our servers now are testing.  Would  
> it be better to put sarge in /etc/apt/sources.list rather than  
> testing so that the machine doesn't suddenly move to sid when sarge  
> becomes stable and sid becomes testing?

You appear a little confused with how you are naming releases and migration
paths.

the release known as sid is unstable, and will permanently be unstable.

Thus if you have sid or unstable in your sources.list you will always be
using unstable.

Sarge is the current testing release that is soon to be made stable.

When a testing release goes stable it keeps its name (woody was testing
once, became stable and is still called woody), a new testing release is
created (with the same trickle down from sid/unstable as testing uses most
of the time) and given a new name. (the release manager(s) pick the name)

A version number is given to a release oficially when it become stable, so
it appears likely that sarge will be called Debian 3.1.

If you wish to keep using sarge put sarge in your sources.list and when it
goes stable you will get a few new packages but mostly have the same stuff,
if you then wish to continue using it you can leave sarge there or maybe put
stable in.

sid will never become testing, there will be a new name for testing and
packages will trickle in from unstable, in stable packages will have
patches applied for security but there will not be new stuff or new
versions.

	See You
	    Steve

-- 
Steven Hanley sjh at svana.org http://svana.org/sjh/diary
i've mapped out my course, looks like it's all uphill
i've got a heavy heart to carry, but a very strong will
   Itch - Not So Soft - Ani