Re: How stable is the frozen stretch?
On Mon 08 May 2017 at 17:07:34 +0200, Sven Hartge wrote:
> Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > experimental is not a distribution. Someone with a sense of humour gave
> > it the codename "rc-buggy". At the present time many of the packages
> > there are being held back from unstable because of the freeze. Once
> > Stretch is officially released they will migrate to unstable.
>
> Just to clarify: They will not "migrate" in the same sense as packages
> migrate from Unstable to Testing automatically. To "migrate" a package
> from Experimental to Unstable the maintainer has to reupload it with a
> higher version number.
That is correct. I was using "migrate" in the general sense of "moving".
Some packages can be in experimental a long time for one reason or
another. For example, experimental pmount fixes a particular bug. If a
user wants that version for that reason there is no need to be afraid to
try it. pmount is orphaned and, as yet, no one has seen fit to move it
to unstable.
Another example (from memory) is polkit. There is an aspect to it which
its maintainer does not want to unleash on unstable as yet. cups and
cups-filters, however, is in experimental probably because its
maintainer does not want it to migrate to testing at this stage. The
version there is rock solid and new aspects to the software require more
exposure before being considered for stable at this late stage.
Different reasons for different packages.
--
Brian.
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