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Re: What are your best practices for running Debian unstable?



On Sb, 12 mar 11, 12:32:47, Aniruddha wrote:
> I've collected some best practices for running Debian unstable,  I'm
> curious to hear what other Debian unstable users do to minimize
> possible problems with running Debian unstable. My current list:

Did you consider starting a wiki page about it?

> * Install apt-listbugs

Yes

> * Install apt-listchanges

Yes

> * Check the ' Debian Weather'  before dist-upgrades (
> http://edos.debian.net/weather/ )

Never done that

> * Check 'Upgrade Warnings' in the aptosid forums before dist-upgrades

What is aptosid? ;)

* learn to use aptitude's interactive resolver. Don't even attempt to 
  use sid unless you have reasonable knowledge of apt and basic Linux 
  recovery skills

* add testing to your sources.list for cases where a package was 
  temporarily removed from unstable to unblock a transition

* do not, repeat, do not (dist-)upgrade before some event[1] where 
  you rely on some functionality of that machine. You might want to 
  consider a parallel stable install, since this is what stable is for.

[1] event can be an important presentation where suddenly your 
presentation software behaves unexpectedly or just a movie night with 
friend(s) where suddenly you can't watch the movie anymore. Bonus points 
if you tried to convince the same people to switch to Linux and/or 
Debian ;)

* learn to use the BTS, searching/reading first and later reporting if 
  you feel confident enough. apt-listbugs helps, but not always.

* don't forget to restart (dist-)upgraded software[2] or even reboot 
  periodically. If you (dist-)upgrade often but forget (or just 
  postpone) restarts you might run into issues later which will be very 
  difficult to track down, because too many packages have been upgraded 
  in the meantime.

Regards,
Andrei
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