Debian Versions?

[Carlosinfl]

OK - I am trying to understand the concept of different debian versions or how I know if I am using what I want to be using.

When I download Fedora 1,2,3,4, I know it is the version I want since I downloaded the labeled ISO however with Debian, there is stable, testing, unstable. I want to use testing which is right now known as "Etch".

What I don't understand is what makes my system Testing over any of the other versions available for testing? Do I have to install Testing Debian to be "Testing" or is it all based on my sources.list?

Can someone please explain as this is rather confusing. I know that stable are packages that have been tested, testing are packages that are currently in the testing state, and unstable is well..unstable.

Thanks for the info.

[jobezone]

OK - I am trying to understand the concept of different debian versions or how I know if I am using what I want to be using.

When I download Fedora 1,2,3,4, I know it is the version I want since I downloaded the labeled ISO however with Debian, there is stable, testing, unstable. I want to use testing which is right now known as "Etch".

What I don't understand is what makes my system Testing over any of the other versions available for testing? Do I have to install Testing Debian to be "Testing" or is it all based on my sources.list?

Check out this simple explanation of the different releases http://wiki.debian.org/DebianReleases .

Testing will become the future stable (thus, next debian stable will be called etch), and unstable is the current Debian development branch.

So, making your system "testing" means you're tracking the testing branch, in your source.lists, and the same with unstable.

In a way, the same can be said about stable, since ever since the release, there have been security updates available only on the repositories (until Debian releases an updated Sarge).

To install debian, either you install Sarge, and then upgrade to testing... EDIT: actually, it's safer you do this. The current Testing netinstall CD's (which I talked about after) uses the development debian installer, which may have bugs, as placed here http://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstallerToday, give you problems, erase your disk, etc.

[Carlosinfl]

So then it just basically comes down to what you have in /etc/apt/sources.list

[inconnu]

Hi Carloswill:

... I was just browsing through the Docs, Howtos and Tips & Tricks part of these forums, when I came across this related topic:
Debian Upgrade Howto

You might want to take a look at it, though it's a bit old (2004-03-30) and thus has woody as stable, sarge as testing, and sid as unstable. (Not sure if it's still 100% accurate, otherwise.)