5.5.2. Special case: the stable-updates suite

Sometimes the stable release managers will decide that an update to stable should be made available to users sooner than the next scheduled point release. In such cases, they can copy the update to the stable-updates suite, use of which is enabled by the installer by default.

Initially, the process described in Special case: uploads to the stable and oldstable distributions. should be followed as usual. If you think that the upload should be released via stable-updates, mention this in your request. Examples of circumstances in which the upload may qualify for such treatment are:

• The update is urgent and not of a security nature. Security updates will continue to be pushed through the security archive. Examples include packages broken by the flow of time (c.f. spamassassin and the year 2010 problem) and fixes for bugs introduced by point releases.

• The package in question is a data package and the data must be updated in a timely manner (e.g. tzdata).

• Fixes to leaf packages that were broken by external changes (e.g. video downloading tools and tor).

• Packages that need to be current to be useful (e.g. clamav).

Once the upload has been accepted to proposed-updates and is ready for release, the stable release managers will then copy it to the stable-updates suite and issue a Stable Update Announcement (SUA) via the debian-stable-announce mailing list.

Any updates released via stable-updates will be included in stable with the next point release as usual.