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Old 03-16-2014, 01:16 AM   #1
michalng
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Debain Stable - Can I treat it as a rolling release?


Understand that Debian is NOT a rolling release.

However, wonder if I were to install Debian Stable and only use the following sources.list

Quote:
#Security - replace Wheezy with Stable
deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib non-free

#Stable - replacing Wheezy with Stable
deb http://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/Linux/debian/ stable main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.jaist.ac.jp/pub/Linux/debian/ stable main contrib non-free

#Not using Wheezy-updates and Wheezy-backports
When jessie comes along, doing the usual apt-get update and upgrade, will I be able to treat Debian stable as a rolling release?
 
Old 03-16-2014, 01:28 AM   #2
descendant_command
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Well ...

When the 'stable' repo is pointed to Jessie (edit: at the next release date), your next dist-upgrade will indeed update you to Jessie.

This may not be a good thing to do without some preparation or consideration of the consequences of all of the changes involved.

There may also be some manual steps required as it is likely to involve some major changes (systemd).
e.g. the Lenny to Squeeze dist-upgrade required updating the kernel and apt first, then rebooting before completing the upgrade - doing this as an automated or 'surprise upgrade' would result in a broken system.

Last edited by descendant_command; 03-16-2014 at 07:52 AM.
 
Old 03-16-2014, 02:11 AM   #3
k3lt01
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Rolling release means it is constantly upgrading, not upgrading 2 years after initial install. So the answer to your written question is no.

Having said that it seems your questions is actually quite different to what you have written regarding "rolling release". If you leave your sources list pointing to stable, not wheezy or jessie but stable, then when jessie is released as stable you will have the opportunity to upgrade from wheezy (becomes oldstable) to jessie (becomes stable).

As pointed out by descendant command this can cause problems so you will need to be sure you have backups of any custom changes or simply do a clean install.
 
Old 03-16-2014, 07:09 AM   #4
jdkaye
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Unless you have a compelling reason for using stable (e.g. a mission-critical server) you might want to consider moving to Testing (Jessie) which is truly a rolling release.
jdk
 
Old 03-16-2014, 08:35 AM   #5
JWJones
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If you want a Debian rolling release, track unstable (sid). In my experience it's actually more stable than tracking testing. And don't let anyone talk you into apt-pinning or backports.

Alternately try either siduction or LinuxBBQ.
 
Old 03-16-2014, 08:41 AM   #6
s.verma
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Quote:
Originally Posted by michalng
Debain Stable - Can I treat it as a rolling release?
Actually rolling release is a release which is constantly upgraded in their packages' versions.

Debian Stable get updates for bug/security fixes only. Hence no version upgrade happens in it.

What you say is just you are always tracking stable release, not rolling release.
So in your way you will only get Debian Stable. (Even after converting to Future Jessie which would also be a stable version).

You can only get true rolling release when you would go for Debian Unstable, in which packages are continuously upgraded, and not after years.
 
Old 03-16-2014, 03:59 PM   #7
k3lt01
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There is no Debian rolling release. Sid virtually stops moving when Testing goes into freeze.
 
Old 03-16-2014, 07:40 PM   #8
sgosnell
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Well, the update rate does slow down, but they don't stop, and they pick back up after the freeze. Call it what you will, but the effect is a rolling release. And I agree with JWJones, Sid is less problematic than Testing. Testing can break for days or weeks, but the few breakages I've had with Sid have been fixed in days, never as much as a week. And Testing is certainly not a rolling release, as someone above said.
 
Old 03-16-2014, 07:51 PM   #9
273
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I moved to Sid from Testing due to packages I wanted to use being missing from Testing for a while. Sid has had problems with breakages with multilib but other than that I haven't seen a problem that holding off on a dist-upgrade wouldn't prevent.
of course I wouldn't run a production server on Sid but for a desktop that I can bear to spend an hour on reinstalling (as a last resort) I think it's a better proposition than using the older packages Stable uses or having packages missing like Testing.
I can never find it when I googlle but I did read something on the Debian site saying that the order the writer would choose to use versions was Stable, then Unstable, then Testing.
 
  


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