Re: Stupid Noob Question: Surfing the 'Testing' edge

On Wednesday 14 February 2007 17:36, Michael S. Peek wrote:
Hi Debian gurus,

I jumped aboard the Debian bandwagon mid-Sarge, and so that's the
version of Debian that our machines are currently running. As Etch
nears it's completion I've been preparing for the upgrade from Sarge to
Etch. Since I'm still pretty new to Debian, I'm a little iffy when it
comes to understanding parts of the the Sarge=stable, Etch=testing,
Sid=unstable implementation behind Debian development. Specifically,
I've seen several warnings now about making sure to change "testing" to
"etch" in /etc/apt/sources.lst once Etch goes stable. (For testing
purposes I've just always left it "etch".) But what if what I want is
to keep our machines at "testing"? It seems to have the latest and
grooviest versions of stuff. So how badly would I be shooting myself in
the foot if I changed "etch" to "testing" in /etc/apt/sources.lst and
just left it that way?

Michael

Personally, if you have sufficient harddrive space, I'd keep your current Etch
install pointing to Etch in /etc/apt/sources.list. then I would install
another instance of Etch. I'd keep this pointing to Etch, then when Etch goes
stable I'd point /etc/apt/sources.list for your new Etch install to the
testing repo. this way you have one install which you know works ok, and the
new Etch, now testing/Lenny install.

I've had no real problems with my Etch/upgraded from Sarge install. From time
to time some packages have been removed when doing an apt-get dist-upgrade. I
lost Rosegarden4 for about 6 weeks, then it came back as available.

If you have the harddrive space, doing it this way, at least you have a distro
you know works, and your new install of Etch that you have pointed to the
testing repo can be viewed as a bit experimental. This way, if for some
reason Lenny goes seriously pearshaped, you can boot into your stable Etch.

As I say, I've had no serious problems, apart from losing some packages for a
while.

my 2¢ worth

Nigel.

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