2.1.7.
Debian distribution codenames
Up one level
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Physical directory names in the dists directory, such as
etch/ and lenny/, are just "codenames".
When a Debian distribution is in the development stage, it has no version
number, but a codename instead. The purpose of these codenames is to make the
mirroring of the Debian distributions easier. (If unstable would
be a real directory and it's name would suddenly change to
stable/, a lot of stuff would have to be needlessly downloaded
again).
Currently, stable/ is a symbolic link to etch/, and
testing/ is a symbolic link to lenny/. This means
that Etch is the current stable distribution and
Lenny is the current testing distribution.
unstable/ is a permanent symbolic link to sid/, as
Sid is always the unstable distribution.
