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wheezy updates in sources.list

I am using wheezy and trying to have a simple sources.list. I am not clear about the 'update' repos.

Following line seems essential:
deb http://ftp.plusline.de/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free

Following seems to be for security updates:
deb http://security.debian.org wheezy/updates main contrib non-free

Which of following should I include for regular updates?
deb http://ftp.plusline.de/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib non-free
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-proposed-updates main contrib non-free

Thanks for your help.

I have these:

Code:

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib

deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib



deb http://security.debian.org testing/updates main contrib non-free

deb-src http://security.debian.org testing/updates main contrib non-free

-'testing' is interchangeable with 'wheezy' until wheezy will be stable. After that 'testing' will be interchangeable with the next Debian name (dont know it yet from the top of my head) and 'wheezy' with 'stable'. I let it 'testing' because that will always be 'testing' and bring all the new stuff in (maybe after the release for a month or so i will change it to wheezy to avoid the possibly disrupting post-freeze rush).

Jessie will be the next.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gradinaruvasile (Post 4889516)

I have these:

Code:

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib

deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib



deb http://security.debian.org testing/updates main contrib non-free

deb-src http://security.debian.org testing/updates main contrib non-free

So you are getting only security updates and not other (important) updates, nor proposed-updates.

From: http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/README

Quote:

This directory, dists, is the canonical way to access the distributions.
Each distribution can be accessed by name or state from here.

stable, or squeeze - the released Debian 6.0.6
oldstable-proposed-updates - possible updates to Debian 5.0. See the README there.
proposed-updates - possible updates to Debian 6.0. See the README there.
squeeze-updates - important updates to Debian 6.0
testing, or wheezy - the development version of the next release.
unstable, or sid - untested candidate packages for future releases.

The site: http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/ has testing, testing-updates and testing-proposed-updates.

I've kept things simple here:

Code:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main

deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main



# For SpaceFM:

deb http://ignorantguru.github.com/debian/ unstable main

Quote:

Originally Posted by rng (Post 4895070)

So you are getting only security updates and not other (important) updates, nor proposed-updates.

From: http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/README

The site: http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/ has testing, testing-updates and testing-proposed-updates.

The packages that are "proposed" for testing are packages in the Sid repo. That is what Sid is for. If you want to run Sid that is fine.

Packages start out in experimental. They migrate to Sid. Packages from Sid then migrate to testing. Testing becomes the New Stable when it meets the conditions set down in the release policy.

Trying to get the package upgrade to look like a "stable" release is not going to happen. If you want you can put all that stuff in your sources.list and just comment everything out. Then uncomment them one at a time (running apt-get update after each change) and see what you get from each one.

People here in this thread actually use these repos as intended. How you use them is up to you.

One thing to keep in mind when thinking about the terms "stable". "testing" and "unstable" that may be of interest to you and give some understanding of the way Debian thinks about these things is that if you have "squeeze-backports" enabled in a Squeeze install that install would not be considered "stable". This is because those packages have come from Debian testing.

Packages are not simply a stand alone deal. They have depends that are needed for them to run and many must be able to interact with other functions in your system simply to communicate back and forth. Different versions may not be able to do this. This will cause breakage. Backported packages have to be chosen with care to make sure that they will work.

This is also true of packages that are in Sid migrating to testing. The testing system can't simply be thrown packages willy nilly. Then there are the packages from experimental to Sid which have the same considerations.

The futher forward you go in the process the more likely you are to find that a group of packages migrated a bit early and may not work with the entire system. That is not real important to Debian. What is important is that at the end of the process testing becomes "stable". Debian stable is what Debian puts out for use.

We can choose use testing or Sid. When we do so we can help, by filing bugs, create the new stable. We do, however, choose to use a version that is not "stable", has no intention of being stable and will never be completely stable. Why? Because it is not supposed to be. It is supposed to become stable. When it does it will no longer be "testing".

Sid is always called Sid because it is not ever supposed to become stable. Ever. Right now, late in a freeze of testing, is as stable as it will ever be. It will never become stable and it will never become testing. It uses packages with a good probablility of working on most of the hardware out there.

When those packages get a bit better, or are pushed on through because of more promising packages in experimental, they go to testing. In testing they are, theoretically, more stable. In practice this may not always be the case which is why many people prefer to use Sid.

I suggest that you use the repos that are recommended to you by people that use the versions you are interested in. Have more than one install and try mixing them up in one of those extra installs.

If you want a stable release use Debian Stable using only the "main" repos.

By using the versions for a dev cycle you will get to know what to expect and what repos work for you on your hardware. None of us can tell you that. No one can. That is what Debian testing and Sid are supposed to be finding out.

Debian has now been around for better than 20 years and has a reputation for turning out reliable "stable" versions. That is what they do. The other, forward versions are there ONLY to create the next "stable".

Thanks of a detailed reply.

Quote:

The packages that are "proposed" for testing are packages in the Sid repo.

On http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/ following are separate folders:

proposed-updates
testing-proposed-updates
stable-proposed-updates
sid
unstable

Sid and unstable are same (like testing and wheezy) and you say that proposed-updates are also same as sid or unstable. But what about testing-proposed-updates and stable-proposed-updates? They do not appear to be same as sid or unstable. Please correct me on this.

The http://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/README file clearly states that -updates are "important" updates, while -proposed-updates are "possible" updates.

From following also it seems that testing-proposed-updates is not same as Sid/unstable:
http://www.debian.org/releases/proposed-updates
http://wiki.debian.org/StableProposedUpdates

I myself after reading this thread realized I was misinformed on proposed-updates so I added to my /etc/apt/sources.list & it drew in 2 more updates, so it is an active repo.
Also I actually did a full dist-upgrade & found that although I'm now in testing it didn't remove some of the items that were marked as manually installed.
For example the upgrade from OpenOffice to LibreOffice while it installed LO to replaced OO it replaced the icon but left OO installed. Not meaning that OO would open but it didn't remove it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by widget (Post 4895216)

Packages start out in experimental. They migrate to Sid. Packages from Sid then migrate to testing. Testing becomes the New Stable when it meets the conditions set down in the release policy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by widget (Post 4895216)

This is also true of packages that are in Sid migrating to testing. The testing system can't simply be thrown packages willy nilly. Then there are the packages from experimental to Sid which have the same considerations.

Not all packages start in Experimental and then move to Sid. Most, from my experience, actually start out in Sid and then move down the line. An example of this is Gnome-applets-data. In Experimental the current version is 2.91.4~20110321-1 while in both Wheezy and Sid it is 3.4.1-3. To my understanding Experimental is pretty much for packages that have not been in Debian before, thus they are experimenting with them to see if they will work in Debian. That is why you will find some original Gnome3.x (2.91 to be more accurate) packages in Experimental while Sid and Wheezy are at least 3.4 and that no actual 3.x packages were put into Experimental.

Quote:

Originally Posted by k3lt01 (Post 4895570)

That is very interesting. I appear to need to study on the experimental repo some more.

Quote:

Quoting the Debian FAQ: "project/experimental/: This directory contains packages and tools which are still being developed, and are still in the alpha testing stage. Users shouldn't be using packages from here, because they can be dangerous and harmful even for the most experienced people."

DebianExperimental - Debian Wiki - http://wiki.debian.org/DebianExperimental

As for the OP I suggest you take a look at:
SourcesList - Debian Wiki - http://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList

Following links clearly shows the movement of packages in Debian (including proposed-updates):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:De...ckage-cycl.svg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian#Package_maintenance