Why "testing" to "squeeze" now

[mads]

Hi everyone.

I have read several places that people advice to change repositories from "testing" to "squeeze" now, and change it back to "testing" a while after "squeeze" has become stable. Why is this a good idea?

Thanks.

[rivenathos]

One thing is there will be a massive influx of packages into Testing that have been held back during the freeze period. That "might" create a short period of instability while all the new packages get settled in. Waiting a brief period of time before updating is a common procedure in pure Debian, so I am sure some people using Mint will consider that an option. When Lenny became Stable, things got sorted out in a week or so, but a few folks waited a couple of months.

I am sure Clem will have some advice on what he thinks will be the best course of action when the time comes.

For those wanting to switch to Squeeze, that is their choice, and would be fine for those who desire a "Stable" system versus "Testing." I am not sure what that would mean in the long run, but I am sure some will do it and report back on how it works.

[zerozero]

i switch to unstable 2 months ago and everything runs fine here, without breakages, and i do try to break it (pulling apps from experimental, from sidux repos and mepis repos).

When i switched there was a big update (+400 packages) and now daily i see a dozen or more coming in. But as i said with no probs, until now.

Of course i dont advise this procedure to anybody else, but LMDE is my playground and theres a cloned image of the OS in a spare HDD thanks to clonezila.

[mads]

rivenathos, thank you so much.

This is actually first time I see someone explain this. Thanks, again.

[blowtorch]

I have been running the sid unstable repos with out a hitch so when these packages migrate down into the testing branch it should be a smooth transition. Believe me the debian devs are going to do their best to make sure all is well ... why worry, for the sake of worrying? people are giving their opinion that you should switch to squeeze/stable wait a week or two until going back to testing to be on the safe side. That's their opinion. if sid isn't broke why would testing be when the packages migrate? it won't be. Ya there should be quite a few updates when squeeze goes stable and it separates from testing but, then again there two weeks later there will still be quite a few updates ... so ...

bottom line i'm not worried with all this hype nor should you be ... but that's my opinion

[mads]

...people are giving their opinion that you should switch to squeeze/stable wait a week or two until going back to testing to be on the safe side...

blowtorch, thanks for the reply.
I was not worrying because I didn't know why this option was recommended at the first place. Ignorance is bliss.

On the other hand, now that I have understood they had "smooth transition" and "being on the safe side" in mind, I am starting to worry.

[oOarthurOo]

I have been running the sid unstable repos with out a hitch so when these packages migrate down into the testing branch it should be a smooth transition. Believe me the debian devs are going to do their best to make sure all is well ... why worry, for the sake of worrying? people are giving their opinion that you should switch to squeeze/stable wait a week or two until going back to testing to be on the safe side. That's their opinion. if sid isn't broke why would testing be when the packages migrate? it won't be. Ya there should be quite a few updates when squeeze goes stable and it separates from testing but, then again there two weeks later there will still be quite a few updates ... so ...

bottom line i'm not worried with all this hype nor should you be ... but that's my opinion

I'm running Sid and it's going to break when Squeeze is released. It's stability right now is because of the Squeeze freeze. When the unfreeze happens the Sid will hit the fan. For the first 10 days after Squeeze is released there won't be much if any updates to Testing, while Sid will see a huge influx. From 10 days on some of those packages will start flowing to Testing assuming there are no critical bug reports opened against them.

[vrkalak]

I'm running Sid and it's going to break when Squeeze is released. It's stability right now is because of the Squeeze freeze. When the unfreeze happens the Sid will hit the fan. For the first 10 days after Squeeze is released there won't be much if any updates to Testing, while Sid will see a huge influx. From 10 days on some of those packages will start flowing to Testing assuming there are no critical bug reports opened against them.

The 'freeze' has only effected 'testing' as it's package development has been frozen, to make way, to be released as the new Debian 6.0 Squeeze "new stable"

Sid (unstable) is not effected by the 'freeze' at all. Sid is always unstable.

I do see, as you mentioned, a big influx of newly updated Apps flowing into the new Wheezy (testing) soon after the 'stable' release of Squeeze.
But, not so much as to not be able to handle it, as these have been flowing into 'unstable' all along. Even during the freeze.

If you are using Sid/unstable you should not experience any more problems/breakage than usual.

I have been using a mixed testing/unstable sources.list with my Debian 5.0 /Xfce install for almost 2 years, and while I did notice that the 'freeze' have happened, my unstable repros were unaffected by this. I have continued to receive updates to Apps all along.

I have also, recently installed the new Debian 6.0 Squeeze Beta2 release ... already more stable than I thought possible.

[oOarthurOo]

I'm running Sid and it's going to break when Squeeze is released. It's stability right now is because of the Squeeze freeze. When the unfreeze happens the Sid will hit the fan. For the first 10 days after Squeeze is released there won't be much if any updates to Testing, while Sid will see a huge influx. From 10 days on some of those packages will start flowing to Testing assuming there are no critical bug reports opened against them.

The 'freeze' has only effected 'testing' as it's package development has been frozen, to make way, to be released as the new Debian 6.0 Squeeze "new stable"

Sid (unstable) is not effected by the 'freeze' at all. Sid is always unstable.

Sid is affected.

"The freeze tends to slow down the pace of changes in unstable. Many maintainers opt to push new upstream versions in experimental instead so that if they need to update their packages in testing, they can still do it through unstable. This procedure is recommended by the release managers because it means that updates that they unblock have been tested as usual. It’s not the case for updates uploaded directly to testing (through testing-proposed-updates).

This behavior is rather annoying for the bleeding-edge users that use testing or unstable like a rolling release."

http://raphaelhertzog.com/2010/10/18/un ... e-process/

You can also re-read the thread you participated in on the Debian Forums explaining it in pretty much the same way.
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=54334

I do see, as you mentioned, a big influx of newly updated Apps flowing into the new Wheezy (testing) soon after the 'stable' release of Squeeze.
But, not so much as to not be able to handle it, as these have been flowing into 'unstable' all along. Even during the freeze.

They haven't. Most are going into experimental. Check out the kernel in unstable... it's 2.6.32 ... same as Squeeze. Experimental has newer versions. Same goes for shotwell. And others.

[Murdock]

[quote="vrkalak"
I have also, recently installed the new Debian 6.0 Squeeze Beta2 release ... already more stable than I thought possible.[/quote]
I did too. The XFCE 6 beta. It's super stable and smokin' fast.