Re: updating debian 8 (jessie) stable to permanent testing - SOLVED?
On Mon, 25 Jan 2016 19:11:40 -0500 Francis Gerund <ranrund@gmail.com>
wrote:
> So again, perhaps some automated mechanism for upgrading might be
> beneficial. Or at least some elaboration or amplification of the
> documentation on this subject. And how about a simple guide to "this
> is how you update to testing"?
I disagree entirely. Improved documentation? Sure. We could always do
with some more of that.
But I really don't think automating the update procedure is the best
way to go about handling stable > testing updates. You seem to think
there should be some BRB in Debian's GUIs labelled 'upgrade to Testing
here!' to make things 'easy'. If not, a command-line script would be
redundant, because anyone who is prepared to do the research on how to
use the script should be familiar with Debian's archive system and
capable of writing their own /etc/apt/sources.list.
Sometimes it is necessary to strike a compromise between
user-friendliness and control. Casual users who aren't prepared to
trouble-shoot and just expect everything to work *should not* be using
testing or unstable, simple as that.
Whenever I want to use testing on a new install from stable, I just
throw up a new /etc/apt/sources.list looking something like this:
deb http://http.debian.net/debian testing main
deb http://http.debian.net/debian testing-updates main
deb http://security.debian.org testing/updates main
and I'm good to go. It takes a few minutes at the most.
Anyone trying to run Testing should be a) familiar with the Debian
archive system and what each of the archives contain, b) able to edit a
config file. The current system isn't 'user-unfriendly' it just allows
more control than you would like it to. I really don't see how having
an upgrade script could possibly simplify things and still allow
control over the archives used without effectively making itself
redundant by asking exactly the same questions that one would have to
know the answer to when upgrading the proper way.
If you want to run testing, you should be able to write your own
sources.list. It is a basic skill.
If you want to find out how to track the current testing permanently,
have a look at an actual mirror and see what's available! From a quick
scan of http://ftp.acc.umu.se/debian/dists/ I can see that aliases for
stretch exist, and can thus conclude that I can permanently track the
current testing when it becomes stable by using a 'stretch' entry in my
sources, without ever having had to bother the mailing list with a
question you could have easily found the answer to yourself.
> (BTW, Google is NOT "your friend".
Says the Gmail user.
> And the more I think about it, the more I stand behind my opinion that
> upgrading is unnecessarily difficult and error-prone.
>
> Whew! Now that that's out of the way, let me ask:
>
> When (and why would you use full-upgrade, as opposed to dist-upgrade
> (and how does aptitude figure into that)? I don't use aptitude, I'm
> used to apt-get.
This is something of an oversimplification, but full-upgrade is
aptitude's equivalent to apt-get's dist-upgrade.
As for use, either should be used on a regular basis- the former if you
are an aptitude user, and the latter if you are an apt-get user. It is
a bad idea to use both. Either aptitude full-upgrade or apt-get
dist-upgrade should be part of your maintenance routine.
Either should be used on a regular basis.
> Thanks for your reply.
<snip>
Please stop top-posting.
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Top-posting
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