Re: getting rid of "testing"

[Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>]

~Ansgar writes ("getting rid of "testing""):
> what do people think about getting rid of current suite names ("stable",
> "testing", "unstable") for most purposes?  We already recommend using
> codenames instead as those don't change their meaning when a new release
> happens.

Others have pointed out that "testing" has a specific value.  Also,
these suite aliases have a documentary value.  It can be helpful to
say things like "when this is languishing in oldstable ...".

So I would prefer to keep them.

> Related to that I would like to be able to write something like
> 
>   deb http://deb.debian.org/debian debian11 main
>   deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security debian11-security main
> 
> in sources.list as codenames confuse people.

Yes, please, absolutely.  And this should be the default.

I know the codenames thing is fun but it is seriously inconvenient
when talking to anyone who is not completely steeped in Debian stuff.
Even Debian people sometimes make slips - and I'm sure they are more
common because we're having to constantly do these kind of codename
lookups.

I agree entirely with Simon.

The syntax "debian11" is precisely right.  Please don't add a hyphen
to it, as hyphens are already used for separating things like
-security.

I don't think I have any software which would go wrong if there were
an extra hyphen but I would be amazed if there weren't a ton of ad-hoc
scripts out there that would be fine with the transition from
`bookwork' to `debian11' but would Go Wrong with `debian-11'.

For now, the `debian11' can be an alias.  At some future point this
should become the canonical suite name, replacing the codename.  But I
think this should not be done retrospectively to old suites, because
there is software outside the archive that wants to name things by a
single canonical name, and changing that name for an existing suite
will cause trouble.

Ian.

-- 
Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>   These opinions are my own.

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