Bit from the SRMs: the "stable-updates" suite
Adam D. Barratt
With the release of Squeeze, a new suite is available on all mirrors of
the Debian archive. This suite is known as "stable-updates" and
replaces the "volatile" archive which was used in previous releases.
The suite contains a subset of the packages available via the
"proposed-updates" suite which many users may wish to be able to install
without having to cherry-pick them or wait for the next point release.
Such updates will be uploaded to "proposed-updates" as normal, and then
optionally pushed to "stable-updates" by the SRMs with an announcement
being sent to "debian-stab...@lists.debian.org".
The criteria used to add packages to "stable-updates" will be:
* The update is urgent and not of a security nature. Security updates
will continue to be pushed through the security archive. Examples
include packages broken by the flow of time (c.f. spamassassin and
the year 2010 problem) and fixes for bugs introduced by point
releases.
* The package in question is a data package and the data must be
updated in a timely manner (e.g. tzdata).
* Fixes to leaf packages that were broken by external changes (e.g.
video downloading tools and tor).
* Packages that need to be current to be useful (e.g. clamav).
If you believe that your update meets the above criteria, please contact
the Release Team as usual via debian-...@lists.debian.org,
mentioning that you think the update should also be pushed via
"stable-updates".
The first update has already been added to the suite - "clive", in order
to resolve an issue with the retrieval of some YouTube videos. An
update for "tzdata", in order to include changes to Chile's DST which
take affect over this weekend, is planned to be added later today.
Regards,
Adam, for the SRMs