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.
Versionis the numerical presentation of the Debian release.Code Nameis the name of the release which is more human friendly. This code names are chosen from the movie namedToy 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.
Unstableis the first phase where package enters to the debian ecosystem. This is unstable as it named.Testingis second phase and provides more stability. Testing can be used for most of the cases.Stableis 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 One disadvantage of stable is packages are generally outdated.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 |
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_IDfor distributions name which is DebianDISTRIB_RELEASEfor versionDISTRIB_CODENAMEfor code name in human compatible format
$ cat /etc/lsb-release
