On Fri, 2 Aug 2024 at 11:35, Luca Boccassi <bl...@debian.org> wrote: > > On Fri, 2 Aug 2024 at 10:15, Simon McVittie <s...@debian.org> wrote: > > So I think Luca really has two distinct change requests here, not just one: > > > > 1. Label testing as Debian 13 starting from the beginning of the trixie > > cycle, and the equivalent for each future cycle > > 2. Label unstable as something that differs from testing > > > > and it would be technically possible to have both, or neither, or accept > > (1.) but reject (2.). > > > > I personally have a lot of sympathy for wanting (1.) - as I said, when > > I'm communicating with developers outside the Debian bubble who don't > > know our processes, I tend to refer to both testing and unstable as some > > sort of prerelease, alpha or preview of Debian 13, because that's close > > enough to true. I am much more hesitant about (2.), because testing and > > unstable are more similar than they are different, and more similar to > > each other than they are to their state 6 months ago. > > 1 is already the case, and actually I am asking to revert that. > VERSION_CODENAME=trixie was added, and the problem as explained is > that it's present in sid too. So the only identifier we have in sid, > identifies it as trixie, which is categorically and unequivocally > wrong.
To further clarify why the status quo with VERSION_CODENAME=trixie in sid is really bad: it used to be that if you had "debian" mentioned in os-release but no other version identifying fields, you knew you were on testing OR unstable and you'd have to deploy horrendous hacks to attempt and figure out which of the two it was really. But if you had VERSION_CODENAME, you could just use that, full stop, and everything was sane. Now all these hacks have to be further hacked, and you have to check if you are on Debian, and if you have VERSION_CODENAME, and if you do _not_ have VERSION_ID _then_ you have to discard VERSION_CODENAME, completely ignore it, and then run the previous hacks. Sorry, but there's no other way to define this than a bug. Well, there are many more I could mention, but then Russ would whip out the cane ;-)
