Debian Releases and Names – POFTUT

Debian Releases and Names


Debian is old and mature Linux distribution. Debian uses versions in order to distinguish. In this tutorial we will learn and list Debian Releases and Names.

Version Names

Debian  provides different releases as versions. There are version, code name.

  • Version is the numerical presentation of the Debian release.
  • Code Name is the name of the release which is more human friendly. This code names are chosen from the movie named Toy Story .

Unstable, Testing, Stable

As packages of debian is developed by different parties in anarchical manner they are not always stable as expected. Debian uses 3 phase to specify the package stability.

  • Unstable is the first phase where package enters to the debian ecosystem. This is unstable as it named.
  • Testing is second phase and provides more stability. Testing can be used for most of the cases.
  • Stable is a rock. It can work without any problem and used for production systems. One disadvantage of stable is packages are generally outdated.

Release List

Here is the release list which provides information like Version , Code Name , Release Data and Toy Story Character .

Version Code name Release date Toy Story character
1.1 Buzz 1996-06-17 Buzz Lightyear
1.2 Rex 1996-12-12 Rex (the T-Rex)
1.3 Bo 1997-06-05 Bo Peep
2.0 Hamm 1998-07-24 Hamm (the pig)
2.1 Slink 1999-03-09 Slinky Dog
2.2 Potato 2000-08-15 Mr Potato Head
3.0 Woody 2002-07-19 Woody the cowboy
3.1 Sarge 2005-06-06 Sarge from the Bucket O’ Soldiers
4.0 Etch 2007-04-08 Etch, the Etch-A-Sketch
5.0 Lenny 2009-02-14 Lenny, the binoculars
6.0 Squeeze 2011-02-06 Squeeze toy aliens
7 Wheezy 2013-05-04 Wheezy the penguin
8 Jessie 2015-04-26 Jessie the cowgirl
9 Stretch 2017-06-17 Rubber octopus from Toy Story 3
10 Buster not yet released Andy’s pet dog
11 Bullseye Not yet released Woody’s horse
Sid “unstable” The next door neighbour
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Check Debian Release Version and Code Name

We may want to check our current Debian system release version and code name . the easiest and most compatible way is printing the /etc/lsb-release file which provides detailed information like

  • DISTRIB_ID for distributions name which is Debian
  • DISTRIB_RELEASE for version
  • DISTRIB_CODENAME for code name in human compatible format
$ cat /etc/lsb-release
Check Debian Release Version and Code Name
Check Debian Release Version and Code Name

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