ftp daemon update requires potato

[Mike Z.]

Hello:

I'm new to Debian but really like the idea of the distribution and am
trying hard to make things work.  One thing I find especially troublesome
is that the wuftpd that can be installed to slink is a version with a DOS
vulnerability that has been published for almost a year.  I found a current
wuftpd deb and installed, but had to install numerous dependant packages.
When all was done, I now had the 'potato' version.

All I really need is an ftp server (I like wu for various reasons) on a
stable system.  Why is it that simply upgrading the ftpd would throw my
setup into an 'unstable' version?  Is this likely to be a problem whenever
I install recently released software?  Is Slink a bit behind when it comes
to c libraries, etc?

My impression is that many people use potato and it's 'plenty stable' but
I've read a few notes on the list regarding weird anomalies with potato.  I
don't really want to be told to use potato because it's okay and then
suffer any odd consequences (as I'm running a server that I expect to be
operational all the time).

TIA for any advice, comments, etc.

Mike

Re: ftp daemon update requires potato

[Rob Mahurin]

On Sun, Jan 09, 2000 at 05:17:36PM -0800, Mike Z. wrote:
 
 All I really need is an ftp server (I like wu for various reasons) on a
 stable system.  Why is it that simply upgrading the ftpd would throw my
 setup into an 'unstable' version?  Is this likely to be a problem whenever
 I install recently released software?  Is Slink a bit behind when it comes
 to c libraries, etc?
 

Yes, it is.  Without doing any actual checking, I would bet that the
wu fix didn't happen until after the conversion to glibc2.1 and just
hasn't been backported to slink.

 My impression is that many people use potato and it's 'plenty stable' but
 I've read a few notes on the list regarding weird anomalies with potato.  I
 don't really want to be told to use potato because it's okay and then
 suffer any odd consequences (as I'm running a server that I expect to be
 operational all the time).

I haven't had any problems:

00:52 ~ $ ud -d
- Uptime for peon -
Now  : 14:12:45 running Linux 2.2.14
One  : 45 day(s), 11:51:13 running Linux 2.2.13, ended Sun Jan  9 01:18:49 2000
Two  : 32 day(s), 11:10:43 running Linux 2.2.9, ended Thu Sep 23 09:12:45 1999
Three: 31 day(s), 19:24:26 running Linux 2.2.9, ended Wed Sep 22 17:26:27 1999

I rebooted last night to try the new kernel; was going to play with
the framebuffer but couldn't get it to work with my sorry excuse for
video hardware.  I probably will have the machine up until I move in May.

If you're worried about potato packages being unstable, then don't get
them unless you're already having trouble with them.  If you do decide
to upgrade, check bugs.debian.org/package and this list for heinous
bugs first.  

Rob

-- 
You will experience a strong urge to do good; but it will pass.