Re: Debian's branches and release model

[harryweaver@tutanota.com]

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19 Oct 2021, 03:13 by greg@wooledge.org:

> On Mon, Oct 18, 2021 at 12:29:55PM -0400, Peter Hoist wrote:
>
>> I am enjoying Debian's testing branch as a reasonably stable and up-to-date
>> 'rolling' release,
>>
>
> It's not.
>
>> So the question is, why not cut a release branch every two years, and at
>> the same time keep the unstable/testing alive?
>>
>
> You misunderstand Debian's release model at a fundamental level.
>
> The purpose of testing, and even unstable, is not "to give our users a
> rolling release".  Your perception of them as such a thing is where the
> error lies.
>
> The purpose of unstable (and more recently, testing) is to prepare for
> the release of the next stable version.  Everything about them is geared
> toward that goal.
>
> Packages are uploaded to testing not because they've got that new package
> smell, and not because having higher version numbers increases your score.
> It's because the developers believe the newer package will add benefit
> to the next stable release.
>
> Let me say this again, to be clear: packages are uploaded to unstable
> because that's how they become eligible for the next stable release.
>
> The unstable and testing branches themselves are just places where you
> can go to test the next stable release before it happens, find the bugs,
> and report them.
>
> The "slushy" effect (unstable mostly freezing along with testing) is
> simply a side effect of the fact that All Of Debian is preparing for the
> next release.  All efforts are on fixing the release-critical bugs in
> the packages, so they don't get removed from testing (and therefore from
> the next stable release).  Uploading a new package to unstable during
> this time would backfire in multiple ways: not only does it take away
> developer time that could have been spent fixing the bugs in testing,
> but any chance of such a new unstable package migrating into testing
> during the freeze would throw everything off.
>
> If you want your raw-and-bloody new package stream to continue faster,
> you can help by reporting bugs, or even by offering fixes if your skill
> set allows it.
>
> Advocating for "hey, let's split the Debian developer community into two
> pieces right before a release" is not likely to achieve your goals.
>
And yet, given all that, I run a small business quite successfully, on Unstable, because it's a darned sight more stable than Windows.
I can't remember the last time I got a window freeze on Unstable.
Testing a package, even before it is released into the Unstable branch, appears to be quite rigorous.
Cheers!

Harry.