dist-upgrade from testing to etch
 

my /etc/sources.list now is
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
deb http://secure-testing.debian.net/debian-secure-testing/ testing/security-updates main contrib non-free
is it recommeneded to upgrade to etch and stay with etch or stay testing and if the first then,

what does it need to look like inorder to swtich to etch.
to switch to etch, do I change the first line to

deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ etch main contrib non-free

the second line for the security, does the below apply?

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

do I need to apt-get dist-upgrade for this? I mean testing and etch are the same right now.

testing is a symlink to etch - that is how it works, and debian.org describes that very well.
on the deb repoistory servers you have the 'real' folders potato, woody, sarge, etch, sid and symlinks to them:
old-stable -> woody
stable -> sarge
testing -> etch
unstable -> sid (where this will never change)

meaning: if you replace any instance of 'testing' with the word 'etch' in your sources file - do an apt-get update and that was it!

the point is, if I upgrade after the release of etch, I'll have passed etch up. that is to say, I am testing now and it is linked to etch, later after etch is released then testing will not be etch.

When Etch becomes Stable you will have to either change to the new testing name or better yet just change your repos to Testing and not worry about it.

The safest thing to do is always go by stable, testing, or unstable and not the names.

# Testing Etch
#deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
# Testing Sources
#deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
# Testing Security Updates
# For more info visit: http://secure-testing.debian.net/
#deb http://security.debian.org testing/updates main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://security.debian.org testing/updates main contrib non-free