What is debian-volatile?
Some packages aim at fast moving targets, such as spam filtering and virus
scanning, and even when using updated data patterns, they do not really
work for the full time of a stable release. The main goal of volatile
is allowing system administrators to update their systems in a nice,
consistent way, without getting the drawbacks of using unstable, even
without getting the drawbacks for the selected packages. So debian-volatile
will only contain changes to stable programs that are necessary to keep them
functional.
What is debian-volatile/sloppy?
For packages in the volatile section of the debian-volatile archive,
we try to ensure that newer versions do not introduce functional changes or
require the administrator to modify the configuration file. Software which
cannot be upgraded painlessly will end up in the section
volatile-sloppy.
Security support for debian-volatile
The official security team does not support debian-volatile,
so that the debian-volatile team provides regularly security
updates. Just for notice, at least one member of the debian-volatile team
is also member of the Debian testing
security team.
Releases of debian-volatile
debian-volatile has both a staging and a release area. The
staging area is only used by the build daemons. There is no guarantee
that packages in this area are usable for end users.
Packages in the staging area might not have a safe upgrade path, either.
Packages are moved to the release area whenever a debian-volatile update announcement (VUA) is sent to the debian-volatile-announce mailing list. The upgrade path of packages in this area is guaranteed, as well as the upgrade to the next stable release (lenny).
Archive
The official archive of debian-volatile is available on the main site
volatile.debian.org, but
a network of mirrors is active and available.
Please only use either sarge/volatile or etch/volatile with
deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile sarge/volatile main contrib non-free
or
deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile etch/volatile main contrib non-free
If you want to use the sloppy archive, use the following APT sources:
deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile sarge/volatile-sloppy main contrib non-free
or
deb http://volatile.debian.org/debian-volatile etch/volatile-sloppy main contrib non-free
Archive signing key
Please see ziyi-sarge.asc for sarge,
and etch-volatile.asc for etch.
Contacts
The generic contact address (for new packages, …) is the mailing list
debian-volatile@lists.debian.org.
If you want to subscribe to that list, please see http://lists.debian.org/debian-volatile for details.
Upload instructions for developers can be found at the developers page.