Re: Reporting bugs in Stable
On Sun, 19 Apr 2020 09:51:02 -0400
Jim Popovitch <jim@k4vqc.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 2020-04-19 at 09:43 -0400, Carl Fink wrote:
> > Why is reportbug even in Stable? Why not just replace it with a script that
> > says "Sorry, bugs in Stable are never fixed. Try Testing." Seriously, that's
> > literally the Debian policy, that only security fixes are done in Stable.
>
> I agree with your sentiments, but need to point out that some
> applications are updated regularly in stable (Firefox-ESR is one that
> comes to mind), and there are regular point-releases that contain
> updates.
To clarify: the official absolute assertion that:
"Once a Debian version is released and tagged `stable' it will only get
security updates. That is, only packages for which a security
vulnerability has been found after the release will be upgraded." [1]
is not quite accurate - point releases also fix "important bugs in the
current release." [2]
Additionally, it's not always clear what constitutes a security
vulnerability. In any event, a quick browsing of (for example) the most
recent (10.3) point release notice shows that numerous bugs that aren't
necessarily security vulnerabilities have indeed been fixed. [3]
[1] https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-faq/getting-debian.en.html#updatestable
[2] https://wiki.debian.org/DebianReleases/PointReleases
[3] https://www.debian.org/News/2020/20200208
Celejar
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