request to remove "-updates" repository
Hello Team,
I know I'm risking being unaware of something that invalidates this
request, so please also consider this a request for clarifications if
it's the case.
While discussing #954460 [0] with Cyril, I decided to give it a try to
update the debian-reference section which mentions the "-updates"
repository[1], to make it more informative on what it's about, and
noticed that the reference does not mention that this repository is
enabled by default, currently putting it side-by-side with the
backports repository (which I consider a bad thing).
So I started thinking about how the whole section should be rewritten
to make it more clear how Debian deals with point releases and stable
updates, and I realized that "-updates" could actually just be removed
totally and updates could be pushed to the main repository instead,
thus reducing the complexity and helping with the user confusion about
what is "-updates" and how point releases works[2].
Is there any gotcha that I'm missing here? An user which doesn't want
to have "-updates" merged into the main repository could accomplish
the same by just not updating their system, which is something nobody
should do anyway[3] but the behavior would still be there.
Regards,
[0] remove mentions of "volatile" repo from sources.list:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=954460
[1] https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch02.en.html#_updates_and_backports
[2] unfortunately it's still very common for users to not understand
point releases are just the transition from -updates to the main repo,
and that considering -updates is already enabled, it makes no
difference as long as the system is updated.
[3] such cases would also be more clear, because instead of the
situation being "my system is updated (false), I just don't use
-updates" to "I haven't updated the system since the last point
release"
--
Samuel Henrique <samueloph>
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