Re: Unsure of how Debian is updated
Hello,
> I am converting from RedHat to Debian and in the main am pleased with
> Debian. One thing I can't quite work out though is how Debian handles
> updated packages.
Normally, updated packages go into "unstable", which is a sort of
"work-in-progress area". Every now and then, unstable gets cleaned up, and
released as the new "stable" version, and the previous version becomes,
well, the previous version.
So the upshot is, if you want to keep up with the latest version, just
check the "stable" directory on the ftp servers. Sometime in the next few
weeks, you should get a pleasant surprise :-)
OTOH, if you want to stay with 2.0 for some reason, you should use the
"hamm" directory.
> For example XFree86 3.3.3 is out now, will this eventually be integrated
> into the 2.0 release or are the packages in this release frozen except
> for bug fixes ?
As far as I understand it, only serious bug fixes are allowed into hamm.
3.3.3 actually just missed getting into "slink" (Debian 2.1 is called
"slink"), so it'll go into Debian 2.2 ("potato"). However, if you need it,
you can always ftp it from unstable and install it (dpkg -i *.deb).
> One of RedHats nice features is that there is the upgrade drectory on
> their ftp server and you can just see all the packages that have been
> upgraded since the release of that version of RedHat is there an
> equivalent for Debian ?
If you are using dselect, it will check and list all the upgraded packages
under the heading "Updated packages (newer version is available)". You can
then pick which ones you want to upgrade.
In some respects this is even better than a list of packages upgraded since
a release, because it compares to what you have installed (so if you have a
mixed system, you still get the correct list).
To have dselect do that, you have to tell it to use the "stable" directory.
HTH
Jiri <jiri@baum.com.au>
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