On Mon, Jun 26, 2023 at 10:51:36PM -0400, pa...@quillandmouse.com wrote: > On Mon, 26 Jun 2023 22:10:38 -0400 > Greg Wooledge <g...@wooledge.org> wrote: > > > On Mon, Jun 26, 2023 at 09:53:33PM -0400, pa...@quillandmouse.com > > wrote: > > > > * Stable/OldStable/OldOldStable to refer to the current and > > > > previous releases > > > > > > This sounds good in theory, but in the sources.list file, Debian > > > defaults to the code names, not "stable"/"testing"/"unstable". > > > Fixing this requires a manual edit. > > > > DO NOT USE "stable" IN YOUR sources.list FILE! > > > > EVER!! > > > > GRRRRRRRR!!! > > > > And this is because... ? And do you mind if I use "testing"?
OK. Use it. You'll find out :-) No, seriously. There is a tension there: you want an upgrade process to be as routine and as painless as possible (some people set it on autopilot). That's what the "stable" in Debian stable means: It does come with a big promise [0]: no packages will disappear, no packages will change their major version. Security fixes will be backported whenever necessary (of course, short of 60K packages, things happen from time to time). In short, you want to be able to say "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade" with closed eyes and have your daily driver land on its feet. You want to do that /often/. On a new release, things happen. Your favourite package dies, because upstream has lost interest (or has been bought out, or has been sued, whatever). The Debian maintainer hasn't the means to keep that alive. A major version of something occurs, and it behaves totally differently. You want this event to happen whenever you plan for. You want to read the release notes (otherwise people in this list will be poking fun at you when you complain [1] ;-) You have lots of time for that, while stable becomes oldstable and stays well and alive for quite a while. Of course, perhaps you are fond of surprises. Or you are on top of things. Or whatever. Then, of course, by all means, put stable (or testing, or...) in your source. But people here don't recommend doing that, for a good reason. Remember: it's free software: do whatever you like :-) Cheers [0] And I thank maintainers for this. Every day. [1] Nah. People around here aren't like that ;-) -- t
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