[ILUG] Going to try debian

[Niall Walsh]

I knew it just wan't quite clear enough.

testing is a symlink to sarge. When sarge is released, testing will be 
changed to be a symlink to etch (the next release again affter sarge).

If you use sarge in your sources.list you will get sarge.   If you use 
testing you will get sarge right now, but for how long?   Once sarge is 
released testing will "immediately" become the staging ground for "etch"!

I wouldn't be 100% certain I have both quoted items correct, but testing 
will become etch shortly after release and the next release after sarge 
will probably be called etch.

There are security updates on sarge, but the security updates on testing 
will stop once it becomes etch instead of sarge.

For the actual installation it doesn't matter in the slightest today 
whether you use sarge or testing, and while the latest optimistic 
release date for sarge has just passed, it's very hard to predict how 
long that will stay true for!   And you could get yourself in a mess 
(though you probably shouldn't but you could end up running without 
security patches) if you go updating to testing without realising it has 
become etch since you installed.

Now of course there is another source you could be using RIGHT NOW just 
to confuse things even more ... sarge-proposed-updates (or 
testing-proposed-updates if you prefer).   Now that a freeze is on for 
testing, packages cannot migrate from unstable to testing, instead 
packages must be updated in the *-proposed-updates to get into the 
sarge/testing release.

So an even better sources.list would have:

deb ftp://ftp.esat.net/mirrors/ftp.debian.org/debian sarge main
deb ftp://security.debian.org/ sarge/updates main
deb ftp://ftp.esat.net/mirrors/non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US 
sarge/non-US main
deb ftp://non-us.debian.org/debian-security/ sarge/updates main
deb ftp://ftp.esat.net/mirrors/ftp.debian.org/debian 
sarge-proposed-updates main
deb ftp://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US sarge-proposed-updates/non-US main

Think I've included everything!   Note that ftp.esat.net has a mirror 
for security.debian.org, though it doesn't include the proposed 
updates.  Also it is often suggested that you shouldn't use mirrors of 
security.debian.org, I'll leave that choice up to you.

Finally (I hope) note that the proposed-updates don't get security 
updates either until they hit sarge!

I bet it still isn't clear, but I hope it is!   Using stable is always 
best, but at times like these the next release is a reasonable 
proposition though it's worth understanding what you are actually doing 
so you don't get bitten down the road.

"May you live in Interesting Times"

Niall

Michele Neylon :: Blacknight Solutions wrote:

>>If you want a more up to date system (and you probably do for a
>>workstation) then I would try sarge, which is the next
>>release.   It is
>>a better bet then testing as once sarge is released a new
>>testing release will begin, and you probably won't want to
>>start using that
>>straight away.   Also there are no security updates for testing until
>>release is imminent (they should have started for testing now
>>and I think they have), if you use sarge you wont have to
>>update your sources.list when sarge is released.
>>    
>>
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>"Sarge" is "testing" until it is released officially.
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>Mr Michele Neylon
>Blacknight Internet Solutions Ltd
>Hosting, co-location & domains
>http://www.blacknight.ie/
>Tel. +353 59 9137101
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