Debian releases and archives

What we need to know about Debian

Debian is stable as a rock. A new Debian version,the software it contains is usually not current. In a FOSS world,improvements,fixes,new features are added on daily basis. Debian stable release focuses on software stability.
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Structure of Debian archive

/pool /dists

The Package Pool

/pool hierarchy is divided into three sections

Main Contrib Non-free Two types of packages in Debian

Source packages Binary packages

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Binary Packages

Binary packages, which contain executables, configuration files, man/info pages, copyright information, and other documentation. These packages are distributed in a Debian-specific archive format they are usually distinguished by having a '.deb' file extension. Binary packages can be unpacked using the Debian utility dpkg.

Source Packages

Source packages, which consist of a .dsc file describing the source package (including the names of the following files), a .orig.tar.gz file that contains the original unmodified source in gzip-compressed tar format and usually a .diff.gz file that contains the debian-specific changes to the original source. The utility dpkg-source packs and unpacks 5 Debian source archives

The main archive area

The main archive area comprises the Debian distribution. Only the packages in this area are considered part of the distribution. None of the packages in the main archive area require software outside of that area to function. Anyone may use, share, modify and redistribute the packages in this archive area freely

The non-free archive area

The non-free archive area contains supplemental packages intended to work with the Debian distribution that do not comply with the DFSG or have other problems that make their distribution problematic. They may not comply with all of the policy requirements in this manual due to restrictions on modifications or other limitations.

The contrib archive area

The contrib archive area contains supplemental packages intended to work with the Debian distribution, but which require software outside of the distribution to either build or function. Every package in contrib must comply with the DFSG

/dists
Combination of following parameters

Release name, such as stable The section,such as main Target architecture Package type:source or binary

Debian official releases

Stable Testing Unstable

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Unstable release

Unstable has the most recent (latest) versions A state of continous change Also called as sid Unstable changes a lot, and it can break at any point
Unstable has the most recent (latest) versions

Packages in unstable are not well tested and might have bugs

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Testing release

Every package has a urgency specification Testing breaks less often than Unstable Packages are installed into the `testing' directory after they have undergone some degree of testing in unstable. Security updates are delayed.

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Stable release

Provides Security and Stability. Stable contains old versions of packages. But this package is well tested and is less likely to have any bugs. Stable releases are immutable.

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Debian unofficial ATP archives

experimental archive volatile archive backports.org archive

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The experimental archive

Contains packages that are not ready for public use, not even as part of unstable part of the development cycle People can take part in the development.

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The volatile archive

Debians stable archive does not change beyond security updates, and these do not add new features Certain types of software must change over time, even on the most stable systems(ex,spam filters,virus scanners,etc.) goal of the volatile archive is to become a parallel to the security archive,allow updates

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The backports.org archive

the Debian stable release often contains outdated software. many packages are not available at all because they have only been packaged recently and dependencies makes it impossible to use. Upgrading doesn't work all the time because stability may be in risk.

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The backports.org archive contains more than 450 packages The backports.org archive18 attempts to close this hole and distributes packages that have been recompiled in exactly this way.

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Look, this is Debian. They dont release things until you have to fire rockets at the thing to stop it from working.
MrNemesis on Slashdot

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Thank you

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