Debian Release Management

Release standards (RC bugs)

Lenny	Squeeze	Wheezy
What they are for packages What they are for architectures Which of them aren't being met Architecture status Release goals	What they are for packages What they are for architectures Which of them aren't being met Architecture status Release goals	What they are for packages What they are for architectures Which of them aren't being met Architecture status Release goals

stable: Fast response for security updates. Minor updates include security and other important fixes only. Major updates are sourced from testing, and are infrequent, but large.
testing: Security updates are irregular and unreliable. Release standards are almost continually met. Updates are automatically sourced from unstable, happen twice daily and are usually small.
unstable: Security updates are made by the maintainer; they may not be effective on all architectures, and may be delayed. Packages uploaded may not meet release standards, but any breakage is expected to be fixed promptly. Updates are made by maintainers.
experimental: Packages that are not suitable for widespread use yet. They may or may not meet release standards, as it is commonly used as a staging area for uploads to unstable. Updates are made by maintainers.