Monday, May 6, 2024
Homepage · apt
 Popular · Latest · Hot · Upcoming
1
rated 0 times [  1] [ 0]  / answers: 1 / hits: 638  / 1 Year ago, sun, december 25, 2022, 6:09:55

I don't understand how some packages are managed in Ubuntu. How are they moved from unstable to testing?



The Debian FAQ says:





  • Unstable has the most recent (latest) versions. But the packages in unstable are not well tested and might have bugs

  • Stable contains old versions of packages. But this package is well tested

  • Testing falls between these two extremes




At the moment I'm running Raring 13.04 (unstable). Saucy 13.10 (testing) has more recent packages, which breaks this rule.



Solution



Ubuntu's version management is not the same as Debian's one: It's development which then becomes, gets merged into, stable.



The current state of Ubuntu is:




  • Ubuntu Raring 13.04 is stable

  • Ubuntu Saucy 13.10 is development



So it's all normal to have more recent packages in Saucy. See answers for more details.



Misunderstanding solved ;)





Extension



Well, now I understood raring is stable and saucy development (now is shifted to "saucy --> trusty" as well), how can this situation be explained regarding the 'virtualbox' package:





  • raring (4.2.10-dfsg-0ubuntu2.1)

  • saucy (4.2.16-dfsg-3)

  • virtualbox (4.3.0-89960~Ubuntu~raring)




Here, raring provides newer than saucy, which fits Ubuntu's workflow.



But VirtualBox provides newest to stable Ubuntu versions, instead of the development one.



Since the Ubuntu development version is intended to be merged as a stable Ubuntu in the end, it doesn't make sense for VirtualBox to provide for stable and not for development.



Any input about that ?


More From » apt
 Answers
7

While Ubuntu follows much of Debian's package management guidelines, and indeed many Ubuntu packages come without modification from Debian, there is a different cycle. The packages in different Ubuntu versions do not map directly to particular Debian sections. One of the motivations for Ubuntu was a desire to have more frequently releases than Debian, which necessarily involves a different structure.



There is no stable, testing and unstable. There is always one development release, and several currently-supported short-term and long-term releases. Once a release is made, the package versions are generally not changed, and updated for bug and security fixes, not for new features.



In debian, there is a single unstable release (sid), which in theory can be continually updated forever (expect lots of things to break). In Ubuntu, a new development release is started immediately after the previous release. This is populated with a mixture of packages, mostly from Debian testing/unstable along with a number of Ubuntu specific ones. There is then a 6-month cycle during which bugs are fixed and integration between packages tested. The versions of packages to be included in the release are fixed some time before the release is made to give time for testing. Finally, the development version becomes the new release, and the cycle repeats.



You can read about the Ubuntu release process here.


[#28986] Monday, December 26, 2022, 1 Year  [reply] [flag answer]
Only authorized users can answer the question. Please sign in first, or register a free account.
poefor
Add To Favorites
Follow
Total Points: 379
Total Questions: 95
Total Answers: 115
Location: Serbia
Member since Tue, Jul 26, 2022
2 Years ago
poefor questions
Wed, May 25, 22, 04:28, 2 Years ago
Sat, Oct 16, 21, 15:13, 3 Years ago
Sun, Jun 5, 22, 22:15, 2 Years ago
Sun, Oct 2, 22, 14:46, 2 Years ago
Thu, Nov 11, 21, 15:29, 3 Years ago
View All
;