Re: Current bullseye security and stability
> So you recommend avoiding sid even for specific package minor-version
> upgrades with security fixes?
>
> The Debian wiki says otherwise. See
> https://wiki.debian.org/DebianTesting#Best_practices_for_Testing_users
>
> I currently follow the Debian wiki advice. I carefully monitor the list
> of installed packages from unstable, to avoid unintended upgrades.
Hi Jorge,
the way you explain how you use it, especially carefully reviewing the
upgrade list, and are okay with the chance to run into bugs with the
implementation, it should be fine, but I would never recommend it to a
"regular" user, not knowing the experience level.
Read the notes at the top about which requirements need to be fulfilled
before a package is merged from "unstable" to "testing":
- The package has been in "unstable" at least for 2-10 days (depending
on the urgency of the upload).
- The package has been built for all the architectures which the present
version in testing was built for.
- Installing the package into testing will not make the distribution
more uninstallable.
- The package does not introduce new release critical bugs.
The other way round, the above points are not guaranteed for "unstable"
and usually critical security fixes are available in testing a couple of
days later, which should outweigh the possible chance for a major
security issue introduced with a package from unstable due to a
non-reviewed/tested implementation change for example.
When using testing only, APT upgrades can be applied without issues
(dist/full-upgrade still needs to be reviewed of course due to possibly
changing major versions) and a minimum of test and review is guaranteed,
which IMO is worth it to wait for.
But it all depends on the use-case and personal preference, of course.
And, if you do report bugs back to the package maintainers, you can help
making testing->stable better for other users, so it's actually great if
more (experienced) users use "unstable", but it's just not what I would
recommend to a "regular" user ;).
Kind regards,
Micha
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