On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 10:31:29AM -0600, Paul E Condon wrote: > > Debian has a tradition of valuing highly the idea of never having to do > a complete new install in order to move to the next release. The name > for this feature has drifted about but is currently 'dist-upgrade'. > To move to Jessie from Wheezy, one follows a sequence of steps that > prepares wheezy for dist-upgrade, then edits one's sources.list to > replace every occurrence of 'wheezy' with 'jessie', then actually doing > dist-upgrade using apt-get, aptitude, or whatever.... This drill, in > the hands of a skilled user, can be executed very quickly, but ... > in practice, for me ... not so much. I don't claim to be skilled. >
As you rightly say, opinions have changed over the years. At one time, the apt-get sources lists referenced stable. This is fine, except when Debian released a new major version and everyone's installed system broke on upgrade that day Release names were orgininally a convenience internally: the great advantage is that these remain constant for the life of a release from testing -> stable -> oldstable so use of these makes life easier. _ALWAYS_ read the release notes when moving from one major version of Debian to another. > > My approach is: Every uncommented line in sources.list calls out a > repository, (primary, or mirrored) that is searched for packages. If > you don't want to search a particular repository, don't include it, > or comment it. During a dist-upgrade one needs only lines for the new > release, being installed. Searching for old release packages is a > waste of time and compute cycles. The details drift over time as > the internet changes, and grows. > >From an install made the other day - minus one line inserted in error which referenced the CD from which it was installed - between == == # deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main non-free contrib deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main non-free contrib deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free deb-src http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free # wheezy-updates, previously known as 'volatile' deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib non-free deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib non-free == One repository for binaries per line: corresponding entry for source underneath. This isntall had included non-free repositories when asked because I knew that this hardware needed non-free wifi and Ethernet card drivers. This line should work while wheezy is the current stable release and until it drops out of support as oldstable. [Steve Litt wrote: ] > > > > Some time, after I truly understand the ins and outs of Debian > > versions, downloads, backports, and the like, I'll write a document to > > explain it, clearly, in one place, for the new Debian user. > It is there, but most people never need to look for the lifetime of one installed system. > I sense that there is a lot of diversity of opinion about the details. > I think you will find it hard to satisfy holders of all opinions, but > it is a worthy goal, IMHO. > > Cheers, > -- > Paul E Condon > pecon...@mesanetworks.net > All the very best, AndyC > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org > Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20140322163129.ga11...@big.lan.gnu -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20140323203449.ga5...@galactic.demon.co.uk