DebianReleases

Translation(s): Deutsch - English - Español - Français - Italiano - 한국어 - Nederlands - Polski - Português (Brasil) - Portuguese (Portugal) - Русский - Svenska - Українська - tiếng Việt - 简体中文

https://www.debian.org/releases - Official information about Debian releases

Contents

Introduction
Choosing
Current Releases/Repositories
Production Releases
Release statistics
Workflow
Codenames
See also
1. Wiki pages

Introduction

Debian is under continual development. The latest release is Debian 12.2. It is also (currently) known as stable or by its codename "Bookworm".

Each version also corresponds to a set of named software repositories (at least one per CPU architecture).

At any given time, there is one stable release of Debian, which has the support of the Debian security team. When a new stable version is released, the security team will usually cover the previous version for a year or so, while they also cover the new/current version. Only stable is recommended for production use.

There are also two main development repositories unstable and testing which are continually updated during the development of the next stable release. The latest packages arrive in unstable (which always has the codename "Sid"). Packages are automatically copied from unstable to testing when they meet criteria such as lack of release-critical bugs, and dependencies being satisfied by other packages in testing.

Choosing

End users should generally choose to run either stable or testing. Stable is recommended for applications requiring production-level stability and security (servers, firewalls etc) and is also recommended for those who are new to Linux. Testing is recommended for advanced users who want new software on their desktops and who are capable of reporting and fixing bugs to help Debian.

Choosing a debian distribution discusses the pros and cons of choosing one Debian distribution over another. And the overview of software for Debian Stable describes common ways Debian stable is enhanced with newer software or otherwise given extended capabilities.

The Debian FTP archives chapter of the Debian FAQ has even more information.

Current Releases/Repositories

oldstable - The previous stable release (Bullseye).
stable - The current stable release (Bookworm).
testing - The next generation release (Trixie).
unstable - The unstable development release (Sid), where new or updated packages are introduced.

Also:

experimental - Not really a release (RC-Buggy), but a repository where packages are tested (experimented) if they are not suited for unstable.
backport - Not a release, but a repository for updated packages for stable.

Production Releases

Version	Code name	Release date	End of life date	EOL LTS	EOL ELTS
14	Forky
13	Trixie
12	Bookworm	2023-06-10
11	Bullseye	2021-08-14	~2024-07
10	Buster	2019-07-06	2022-09-10	2024-06-30
9	Stretch	2017-06-17	2020-07-18	2022-07-01	2027-06-30
8	Jessie	2015-04-25	2018-06-17	2020-06-30	2025-06-30
7	Wheezy	2013-05-04	2016-04-25	2018-05-31	~2020-06-30
6.0	Squeeze	2011-02-06	2014-05-31	2016-02-29
5.0	Lenny	2009-02-14	2012-02-06
4.0	Etch	2007-04-08	2010-02-15
3.1	Sarge	2005-06-06	2008-03-31
3.0	Woody	2002-07-19	2006-06-30
2.2	Potato	2000-08-15	2003-06-30
2.1	Slink	1999-03-09	2000-09-30	2000-10-30
2.0	Hamm	1998-07-24	-
1.3	Bo	1997-07-02	-
1.2	Rex	1996-12-12	-
1.1	Buzz	1996-06-17	-
0.93R6		1995-10-26	-
0.93R5		~1995-03-01	-
0.91		~1994-01-01	-

Reminder: the EOL date for the stable release is the date of the next stable release plus one year. For example, Debian bullseye ("buster +1") was released on 2021-08-14 so Debian buster's EOL is around 2022-08.

Note: the point releases (like 7.1 and 7.2) are detailed in each distribution's page.

Release statistics

Version	Code name	Freeze length	Time from previous release	Time from next release up to EOL	Total lifetime
1.2	Rex		178 days
1.3	Bo		175 days
2.0	Hamm	171 days	414 days
2.1	Slink	125 days	228 days	76 days	601 days
2.2	Potato	212 days	525 days	346 days	1049 days
3.0	Woody	383 days	703 days	389 days	1442 days
3.1	Sarge	34 days	1053 days	357 days	1028 days
4.0	Etch	258 days	671 days	366 days	1044 days
5.0	Lenny	202 days	678 days	365 days	1087 days
6.0	Squeeze	184 days	722 days	391 days	1209 days
7.0	Wheezy	308 days	818 days	366 days	1087 days
8.0	Jessie	171 days	721 days	365 days	1149 days
9.0	Stretch	224 days	784 days	366 days	1115 days
10.0	Buster	185 days	749 days
11.0	Bullseye	28 days	770 days
12.0	Bookworm	101 days	665 days

In the above array, data closely following "current" releasing tendencies have been highlighted in green. What can be deduced from those data is that the "most-typical" Debian release:

endures a freeze cycle of 7 +/- 1 months before getting released.
is released about 2 years after the previous one (the often cited example of Debian Sarge being quite an exceptional event in Debian history).
leaves users about 1 year to upgrade to the next one once this latter itself gets released.
has (from release to the end of security updates) a total lifetime of about 3 years.

http://debian.semistable.com/releases.gif

Workflow

Here's a diagram describing how packages flow between archives:

The above graphic is generated from a dot file in the package-cycle git repository.

Codenames

Releases of the Debian distribution have both traditional version numbers and codenames based on characters from the Pixar/Disney movie "Toy Story" (1995). Sid, as you may recall, was the evil neighbor kid who broke all the toys. Additionally, the codename for the Experimental repository, RC-Buggy, was Andy's toy car, and is a pun on 'Release Critical' and 'Remote Control.'

Introduction

Choosing

Current Releases/Repositories

Production Releases

Release statistics

Workflow

Codenames

See also

Wiki pages