what do you want to see in future apt versions ?

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Sun, 7 Jun 2020 19:41:27 +0200, Tom H wrote:
>On Sun, Jun 7, 2020 at 7:20 PM Ralf Mardorf via ubuntu-users
><ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:
>> On Sun, 2020-06-07 at 18:25 +0200, Tom H wrote:  
>>>
>>> Perhaps the "dist" in "dist-upgrade" is confusing, but apt/apt-get
>>> aren't different from other package managers. dnf, pacman, yum (and
>>> zypper, I assume) will upgrade you to the next/the devel release if
>>> you enable that new release's package index.  
>>
>> pacman it the tool of Arch Linux, a _real_ rolling release. There
>> isn't a "next" release package index, since there is no "next"
>> release.  
>
>I said "devel" but in the Arch world it's called "testing."

No it's not a "devel" release or "testing" release, it's just an
additional repository. The "testing" repository does not contain all
packages. It needs packages from stable. However, from the Ubuntu
repositories it would be "backports" that's closest to Arch's "testing"
repo. You mentioned "if you enable that new release's package index",
but it's not a new release. A new release doesn't exist. Ubuntu
"backports" aren't a new release either, "backports" provide newer
versions, but compiled against the current release libraries.

>> Apart from the stable repositories Arch Linux has got staging and
>> testing repositories. It doesn't make much sense to enable the
>> testing repositories, but it could be done.  
>
>Someone has to. The developers for example. And not just the
>developers. I've seen bugs where users report problems with a package
>from "testing." Or else new packages aren't tested before being
>released for general use.

From https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Official_repositories :

"testing contains packages that are candidates for the core or extra
repositories.

New packages go into testing if:

    They are destined for the core repo. Everything in core must go
    through testing

    They are expected to break something on update and need to be
    tested first."

It's the same release, just the packages aren't necessarily stable.

"Disabling testing repositories

If you enabled testing repositories, but later on decided to disable
them, you should:

    Remove (comment out) them from /etc/pacman.conf
    Perform a pacman -Syuu to "rollback" your updates from these
    repositories."

Rollback to packages from the stable repository, but not to a former
release. A rolling release without releases and freezes needs the
staging step:

"Staging repositories
Warning: Do not enable the staging repositories for any reason. Your
system will unquestionably break after performing an update. This
repository is only meant for backend developer use.

This repository contains broken packages and is used solely by
developers during rebuilds of many packages at once. In order to
rebuild packages that depend on, for example, a new shared library, the
shared library itself must first be built and uploaded to the staging
repositories to be made available to other developers. As soon as all
dependent packages are rebuilt, the group of packages is then moved to
testing or to the main repositories, whichever is more appropriate."

The people who need to enable testing are testers. And it must be
repeated: "Everything in core must go through testing"

There are no releases!