[kwlug-disc] definition of debian's "stable"?

[Robert P. J. Day]

On Sun, 16 Aug 2009, L.D. Paniak wrote:

> Yep, I believe that the only significance of a new minor in a Debian
> release is that the installation media gets updated.  Looking at the
> release notes for the latest update of Lenny,
>
> http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090627
>
> there is nothing you would not see in a typical apt-get upgrade -
> save for the installer "di" updates.  Maybe someone else knows of
> the greater cosmic significance of a Debian update?
>
> Otherwise, updates are just bug fixes and minor performance
> upgrades. For real updates to functionality on a regular basis, look
> to the testing and/or unstable branches.

  but this is not what the online docs say.  read here:

http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-getting.en.html

"2.2 Are there package upgrades in `stable'?

No new functionality is added to the stable release. 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."

  that seems fairly adamant that, once you install a new "stable"
release, the *only* updates/upgrades you will see are
security-related.  no big fixes or performance upgrades.  or am i
misreading that?  or does a 5.0.1 or 5.0.2 "release" represent a new
release that *does* incorporate bug fixes?

  i'm not trying to be thick, i am merely succeeding.

rday
--

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Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

        Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry.

Web page:                                          http://crashcourse.ca
Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
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