Bug#980887: apt: Ability to reference a version also by its major number (e.g. 10) and not only by its name (e.g. buster) in sources.list

[sim <smntov@gmail.com>]

Package: apt
Version: 1.8.2
Severity: wishlist

Dear Maintainer,

It would be nict to have the ability to reference a Debian version also by its
major number (e.g. 10) and not only by its name (e.g. buster) in sources.list.

E.g. right now `/etc/apt/sources.list` looks like this:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main non-free contrib

It should be possible to use `10` instead of `buster`:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ 10 main non-free contrib


For those who do not know/remember the chronological sequence of the version
names - numbers tell more. It's also allows for a more neutral style - as not
everybody might like things like `potato` or `etch`...

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-- Package-specific info:

-- (no /etc/apt/preferences present) --


-- (no /etc/apt/preferences.d/* present) --


-- (/etc/apt/sources.list present, but not submitted) --


-- (/etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list present, but not submitted) --


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 10.2
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 4.19.0-6-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_OOT_MODULE, TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE
Locale: LANG=en_IL, LC_CTYPE=en_IL (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_IL:en (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii  adduser                 3.118
ii  debian-archive-keyring  2019.1
ii  gpgv                    2.2.12-1+deb10u1
ii  libapt-pkg5.0           1.8.2
ii  libc6                   2.28-10
ii  libgcc1                 1:8.3.0-6
ii  libgnutls30             3.6.7-4
ii  libseccomp2             2.3.3-4
ii  libstdc++6              8.3.0-6

Versions of packages apt recommends:
ii  ca-certificates  20190110

Versions of packages apt suggests:
pn  apt-doc                      <none>
pn  aptitude | synaptic | wajig  <none>
ii  dpkg-dev                     1.19.7
ii  gnupg                        2.2.12-1+deb10u1
ii  powermgmt-base               1.34

-- no debconf information