[NCLUG] Debian Question

[Chad Perrin]

On Thu, Jan 03, 2008 at 05:04:46PM -0800, Matt Taggart wrote:
> >   1. After a Debian release goes to Stable, it only stops getting
> >   software version updates to keep it current -- it only gets security
> >   updates.  FreeBSD releases get software updates for currency as well as
> >   security throughout their lifetime for software in the ports system
> >   (because the ports system and the base system are not handled the same
> >   way by FreeBSD).
> 
> FYI there are a couple ways to solve this in Debian. 
> 
> 1.) backports of newer versions to run on stable.
> http://backports.org
> 
> 2.) The Debian volatile archive, for packages that need regular 
> non-security upgrades to be useful, like spam and virus filters for example
> http://www.debian.org/volatile/

Generally, I think if your priority is up-to-date software, you should be
using Unstable/Sid -- especially since you're likely to get at least as
much stability out of sid as you would by mixing nonstandard software
repositories with Stable.


> 
> >   2. With FreeBSD, it tends to be less prone to stability issues if you
> >   upgrade some software versions but not others, so if you want to freeze
> >   versions for particular ports for compatibility purposes it shouldn't
> >   affect the stability of the rest of your system except in extreme
> >   edge-cases.  This is a side-effect of being a source-based system,
> >   rather than a binary-based system -- which has its own benefits and
> >   detriments, depending on your needs.
> 
> You can do this in Debian too by putting packages "on hold". Once you put 
> something on hold, apt will refuse to upgrade it or anything that depends 
> on a newer version of it. This is super useful when tracking unstable, if 
> you hear people are having issues with the new version of something, you 
> can put yours on hold but still upgrade the rest of the system. I used to 
> use this a lot with mozilla/galeon when those were in their teenage years. 
> You can use dpkg, dselect, or aptitude to put things on "hold".

I didn't mean to suggest you can't put packages on hold or update to
versions of packages from less-stable release branches with Debian.  I
just referred to the fact that this sort of thing tends to lead to
greater potential stability issues with binary package based OSes.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
Ben Franklin: "As we enjoy great Advantages from the Inventions of others
we should be glad of an Opportunity to serve others by any Invention of
ours, and this we should do freely and generously."