6. The Debian FTP archives

6.1 What are all those directories at the Debian FTP archives?

The software that has been packaged for Debian GNU/Linux is available in one of several directory trees on each Debian mirror site.

The directory dists contains the "distributions", and it is now the canonical way to access them.

6.2 How many Debian distributions are there in the dists directory?

Normally there are two distributions, the "stable" distribution and the "unstable" distribution. Sometimes there is also a "frozen" distribution.

6.3 What are all those names like hamm, slink, etc.?

They are just "codenames". When a Debian distribution is in the development stage, it has no version number but a codename. The purpose of these codenames is to make easier the mirroring of the Debian distributions (if a real directory like unstable suddenly changed its name to stable, lot of Megabytes would have to be downloaded again).

Currently, stable is a symlink to hamm (i.e. Debian 2.0) and unstable is a symlink to slink, which means that hamm is the current stable distribution and slink is the current unstable distribution.

6.4 What about "frozen"?

When the unstable distribution is mature enough, it becomes frozen, and a new unstable is created in the dists directory, having a new codename. After a month or two of testing, the frozen distribution becomes stable, it is released, and the previous stable distribution becomes obsolete.

6.5 Which other codenames have been used in the past?

Other codenames that have been already used are: buzz for Debian 1.1, rex for Debian 1.2 and bo for Debian 1.3.x.

6.6 Where do these codenames come from?

So far they have been characters taken from the movie "Toy Story" by Pixar.

6.7 What about "sid"?

It is a special distribution for architectures which haven't yet been released for the first time.

When sid did not exist, the ftp organization had one major flaw: there was an assumption that when an architecture is created in the current unstable, it will be released when that distribution becomes the new stable. For many architectures that isn't the case, with the result that those directories had to be moved at release time, chewing up lots of bandwidth.

For those architectures not yet released, the first time they are released there will be a link from the current stable to sid, and from then on they will be created inside the unstable tree as normal. sid will never be released nor even accessed directly - only through symlinks in the current stable, frozen, or unstable trees. It will be a mix of released and unreleased architectures.

6.8 Where does the "sid" name come from?

Sid was the boy next door who destroyed toys :-)

6.9 Why is not hamm in the dists directory?

The dists directory was created when hamm already existed, so hamm is inside the dists directory via symlinks. It will not be until slink release when all distributions are physically inside the dists directory.

6.10 What does the stable directory contain?

• stable/main/: This directory contains the packages which formally constitute the most recent release of the Debian Linux system.
• stable/non-free/: This directory contains packages whose distribution is restricted in a way which requires that distributors take careful account of the specified copyright requirements. For example, some packages have licenses which prohibit commercial distribution. Others can be redistributed but are in fact shareware and not freeware. The licenses of each of these packages must be studied, and possibly negotiated, before the packages are included in any redistribution (e.g., in a CD-ROM).
• stable/contrib/: This directory contains packages which are freely distributable, but do not meet the policy requirements for distribution by the Debian project for some reason, e.g., the packages have some unusual restriction on modification by other users, or are only available in binary form. For such packages, the project cannot given the user any means to assure that they are free of Trojan horses, and cannot port them to other architectures. Binary-only packages which are not freely redistributable are placed in the non-free directory.

6.11 What does the unstable directory contain?

Unstable contains a snapshot of the current development system. Users are welcome to use and test these packages, but are warned about their state of readiness.

There are also main, contrib and non-free subdirectories in unstable.

6.12 What are all those directories inside dists/stable/main?

Within each of the major directory trees (dists/stable/main, dists/stable/contrib, dists/stable/non-free, and dists/unstable/main/, etc. but not project/experimental/, which is too small to subdivide), the binary packages reside in sub-directories whose names indicate the chip architecture for which they were compiled:

• binary-all/, for packages which are architecture-independent. These include, for example, Perl scripts.
• binary-i386/, for packages which execute on 80x86 machines.
• binary-m68k/, for packages which execute on machines based on one of the Motorola 680x0 processors. Currently this is done mainly for Atari and Amiga computers, and also for some VME based industry standard boards. There is no port of Linux to the old m68k based Macintoshes, because Apple did not supply the needed hardware information.
• binary-sparc/, for packages which execute on Sun Sparcstations.
• binary-alpha/, for packages which execute on DEC Alpha machines.
• binary-powerpc/, for packages which execute on PowerPC machines.
• binary-arm/, for packages which execute on ARM machines.
• binary-hurd-i386/, for GNU/Hurd packages which execute on 80x86 machines.

6.13 Where is the source code?

Source code is included for everything in the Debian system. Most of the license terms of programs in the system require that source code be distributed along with the programs, or that an offer to provide the source code accompany the programs.

Normally the source code is distributed in the "source" directories, which are parallel to all the architecture-specific binary directories.

Source code may or may not be available for packages in the "contrib" and "non-free" directories, which are not formally part of the Debian system.

6.14 Ok, what about the other directories not inside dists?

There are the following supplementary directories:

• "tools/": DOS utilities for creating boot disks, partitioning your disk drive, compressing/decompressing files, and booting Linux.
• "doc/": Documentation, instructions on how to submit bug reports.

Of particular interest to developers:

• "project/experimental/": This directory contains packages and tools which are being developed specifically for the Debian project, and are still in the testing stage. Users are welcome to use and test these packages, but warned about their state of readiness.
• "private/project/Incoming/": Packages that have been uploaded by developers, and which are awaiting placement in the directory hierarchy by the distribution maintainer.
• "indices/": Various lists, including the Packages-Master file.