As an update of a posting I made a short while back, here's a snapshot of the current links at debian.org. As can be seen, the canonical names of distributions are the codenames, and their present state is defined by the links. The links (with exceptions) shift each time a new distribution is released. In addition the Debian point-numbers are bumped at various times in between.
First the README, then the listing with ownerships (1176) removed: This directory, dists, is the canonical way to access the distributions. Each distribution can be accessed by name or state from here. oldoldstable, or squeeze - the released Debian 6.0.10 oldstable, or wheezy - the released Debian 7.8 stable, or jessie - the released Debian 8.0 oldoldstable-proposed-updates - possible updates to Debian 6.0 oldstable-proposed-updates - possible updates to Debian 7 stable-proposed-updates - possible updates to Debian 8 squeeze-updates - important updates to Debian 6.0 wheezy-updates - important updates to Debian 7 jessie-updates - important updates to Debian 8 testing, or stretch - the development version of the next release unstable, or sid - untested candidate packages for future releases experimental, or rc-buggy - experimental packages to be used on top of unstable ~ $ ftp ftp.debian.org Connected to ftp.debian.org. 220 ftp.debian.org FTP server Name (ftp.debian.org:deblis): anonymous 331 Please specify the password. Password: 230 Login successful. Remote system type is UNIX. Using binary mode to transfer files. ftp> cd debian 250 Directory successfully changed. ftp> cd dists 250 Directory successfully changed. ftp> ls 200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV. 150 Here comes the directory listing. lrwxrwxrwx 1 7 Jul 19 2014 Debian6.0.10 -> squeeze lrwxrwxrwx 1 6 Jan 10 10:21 Debian7.8 -> wheezy lrwxrwxrwx 1 6 Apr 25 10:13 Debian8.0 -> jessie -rw-rw-r-- 1 932 Apr 25 10:31 README drwxrwsr-x 5 4096 Apr 28 03:13 experimental drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 25 12:11 jessie drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 28 03:12 jessie-backports drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 28 03:13 jessie-kfreebsd drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 28 03:12 jessie-kfreebsd-proposed-updates drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 28 03:13 jessie-proposed-updates drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 28 03:13 jessie-updates lrwxrwxrwx 1 7 Apr 25 10:13 oldoldstable -> squeeze lrwxrwxrwx 1 24 Apr 25 10:13 oldoldstable-proposed-updates -> squeeze-proposed-updates lrwxrwxrwx 1 15 Apr 25 10:13 oldoldstable-updates -> squeeze-updates lrwxrwxrwx 1 6 Apr 25 10:57 oldstable -> wheezy lrwxrwxrwx 1 16 Apr 25 10:57 oldstable-backports -> wheezy-backports lrwxrwxrwx 1 23 Apr 25 10:57 oldstable-backports-sloppy -> wheezy-backports-sloppy lrwxrwxrwx 1 23 Apr 25 10:57 oldstable-proposed-updates -> wheezy-proposed-updates lrwxrwxrwx 1 14 Apr 25 10:57 oldstable-updates -> wheezy-updates lrwxrwxrwx 1 23 Apr 25 10:13 proposed-updates -> jessie-proposed-updates lrwxrwxrwx 1 12 Aug 04 2008 rc-buggy -> experimental drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 28 03:14 sid drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 25 11:08 squeeze drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 28 03:12 squeeze-lts drwxr-sr-x 5 643072 Apr 26 21:46 squeeze-proposed-updates drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 26 21:45 squeeze-updates lrwxrwxrwx 1 6 Apr 25 10:13 stable -> jessie lrwxrwxrwx 1 16 Apr 25 10:13 stable-backports -> jessie-backports lrwxrwxrwx 1 15 Apr 25 10:13 stable-kfreebsd -> jessie-kfreebsd lrwxrwxrwx 1 32 Apr 25 10:13 stable-kfreebsd-proposed-updates -> jessie-kfreebsd-proposed-updates lrwxrwxrwx 1 23 Apr 25 10:13 stable-proposed-updates -> jessie-proposed-updates lrwxrwxrwx 1 14 Apr 25 10:13 stable-updates -> jessie-updates drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 28 03:13 stretch drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 28 03:12 stretch-proposed-updates drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 28 03:12 stretch-updates lrwxrwxrwx 1 7 Apr 25 10:13 testing -> stretch lrwxrwxrwx 1 24 Apr 25 10:13 testing-proposed-updates -> stretch-proposed-updates lrwxrwxrwx 1 15 Apr 25 10:13 testing-updates -> stretch-updates lrwxrwxrwx 1 3 Apr 25 12:12 unstable -> sid drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 25 11:08 wheezy drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 28 03:13 wheezy-backports drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 28 03:12 wheezy-backports-sloppy drwxr-sr-x 5 163840 Apr 28 03:13 wheezy-proposed-updates drwxr-sr-x 5 4096 Apr 28 03:13 wheezy-updates 226 Directory send OK. ftp> 221 Goodbye. ~ $ Cheers, David. -- 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/20150428153505.GA32587@alum