ATTENTION MIRROR SITES: Debian 1.1 pre-release directory changes.
If you are affiliated with a mirror site that mirrors the Debian
distribution, please make sure your system administrator sees this
information. If you don't operate a mirror site, you can ignore this
announcement.
On Wednesday June 12, at 1200 Pacific Daylight Time (1700 UTC), I will
make a major change to the Debian FTP archive. Some simple preparation
on your part will spare your mirror site from having to retrieve several
hundred megabytes of new data.
1. The directory "/debian/debian-0.93" will be removed.
2. The directory "/debian/buzz" will appear, with several hundred megabytes
contents (the Debian 1.1 pre-release).
3. The symbolic link "/debian/pre-release" will be created, pointing at
the "buzz" directory.
The directory "/debian/buzz" will be a copy of the existing
"/debian/unstable" directory. The "/debian/unstable" directory will
continue to exist, and will be used for development of Debian 1.2 . I
will make the copy by creating a "tar" archive of the contents of
"/debian/unstable" and extracting that copy to "/debian/buzz". Symbolic
links, time stamps, modes, user-ids, and group-ids will be preserved in
the copy.
YOU SHOULD DUPLICATE THIS PROCESS sometime between when I perform it
and when your mirror next runs. Make a tar archive of the "unstable"
directory, create the "buzz" directory, and extract the archive into
it. Remove debian-0.93 if you need the space to create "buzz". Use
"tar", not "cp", to make the copy, as "tar" handles symbolic links
appropriately, and "cp" does not. If you do this, your mirror will
probably only have to retrieve a few files. Otherwise, you'll have to
retrieve the entire system, and you will probably over-burden the site
you mirror.
Some time after this happens, we will create a symbolic link
/debian/debian-1.1 pointing at the "buzz" directory. But we won't do
that until we release the system. Several programs in "buzz" that
currently have open bug reports will be updated before the release.
We plan to duplicate this code-named-directory procedure for every
Debian release.
We tremendously appreciate your providing a mirror site to help us
distribute Debian. Debian is a non-profit organization dedicated to
free software, and we are currently in the process of incorporating
to achieve IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
Many Thanks
Bruce Perens
Debian Project Leader
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