On Tuesday 19 December 2006 13:51, Andrew Sackville-West wrote: > On Tue, Dec 19, 2006 at 11:33:10AM -0800, tom arnall wrote: > > On Monday 18 December 2006 11:10, Andrew Sackville-West wrote: > > > largely. Are you currently pointed at testing or at etch? If at > > > testing, you might want to change to etch so you don't get caught out. > > > > > > my one etch server has really calmed down on the upgrades in the last > > > couple weeks. Of course, there's not much on there (mail, imap, > > > various shares, clamav and a couple others...). > > > > Thanks for getting back to me. By 'pointed at Etch', do you mean get rid > > of the 'testing' addresses and have only 'stable' in 'sources.list'? Hate > > being a nervous nelly, but it means a lot to me to get a solid os on my > > machine. I want to be able to promote linux among my friends, but can do > > this only if I can easily support them. > > I suggest you change your source.list to 'etch' which is currently > synonymous with 'testing'. That way you'll follow etch into > stable. after 'etch' has migrated to stable, you could change your > sources.list to point to 'stable' so that you don't follow 'etch' into > 'oldstable'. I would make that change from 'testing' to 'etch' right > away so you don't accidently get caught in the beowulf-cluster-fsck > that will happen in 'testing' after 'etch' moves into stable. Making > that change right now will NOT affect the system as 'etch' and > 'testing' are the same thing at this moment. > > warning! train platform analogy! warning! > > okay, here's how I view the releases. Debian is like a set of > trains. There are a limited number of platforms for getting on the > trains. Each platform has a name and they are 'experimental', > 'unstable', 'testing', 'stable' and 'oldstable' (are there any > more?). Each train has a name too, though the train doesn't get named > until its on the track between the unstable and testing > platforms. currently, there are four named trains: 'woody', which is > parked at the 'oldstable' platform, 'sarge' which is parked at the > 'stable' platform, and 'etch' which is parked at the 'testing' > platform. The fourth one, 'sid' is a special case -- its a train that > is still being assembled at the 'unstable' platform and is rolled > piece-meal down the track, added to whatever train is sitting at the > 'testing' platform, currently 'etch'. So 'etch' is at the 'testing' > platform getting the final touches put on it before it moves down the > line to the 'stable' platform pushing 'sarge' and 'woody' down the > line. unfortunately for 'woody', the line ends just on the other side > of the 'oldstable' platform and the poor guy will get mothballed and > left on a siding. > > Okay. there are two basic ways to use the debian train. 1) buy a > ticket for a particular train. you can buy tickets for any of the > named trains, 'etch', 'sarge', 'woody', etc. When you buy this ticket, > you board the train and use its tools at whatever platform it is > currently parked at and you'll ride that train right on down to the > end of the line. unless you change your ticket (there is no service > charge for this). 2) rent a seat at one of the platforms 'unstable', > 'testing', 'stable' etc. you can rent > a seat at any platform and make use of whatever tools are on the train you > want while that train is parked at that platform. However, when the > train moves on to the next platform, you are left behind at the > station, and have to use the tools from the next train coming down the > line. Again, you can change your tickets at any time for no fee. > > The only caveat to ticket changing is that the train is running up a > VERY steep hill from 'experimental' to 'oldstable'. In order to get > from one of the lower platforms like 'unstable' or 'testing' to one of > the higher platforms like 'stable' or 'oldstable', you have to either > do a LOT of climbing (this is called downgrading. don't know why as > its an uphill climb ;-P ) or you have to change to a train ticket and > catch a ride up there. Realise of course, that the tools available at > the next train station will then be the same ones as you currently > use, because you're riding on the train with that set of tools. > > warning! application of train analogy! warning! > > okay, so you're currently renting a seat at the testing station and > using the tools on that train, which is called etch. however, you know > that this train, etch, is about to pull out of the station. If you like > the tools on this train, you better hop on it now before it pulls out > of the station. Otherwise, you'll have to use the tools on the next > train, called 'lenny', but those tools are still being refined as they > pull into the station. You'll have to do some hacking while it all > gets organized and polished up. > > end of train analogy. thank you for participating and have a great trip. > > phew. > > sorry everyone. > > hth > > A
and until 'etch' becomes 'stable', do i get rid of the ref's to 'stable' in sources.list once i've replaced 'testing' with 'etch'? or have the ref's to 'stable' been ignored all along, beginning at the point where i put the ref's to 'testing' in sources.list? tom -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
