Difference between 'google-chrome-stable' and 'google-chrome' binaries

There are two binaries in my /usr/bin directory, google-chrome and google-chrome-stable. I wonder if both belongs to the same package.

$ ls /usr/bin/ | grep google
google-chrome
google-chrome-stable

Which one to use BTW?

Solution 1:

In your case it's all the same. google-chrome starts the configured version, see at the end of my answer.

First let's start a little test:

% ls -laog /usr/bin/google-chrome       
lrwxrwxrwx 1 31 Mär 17  2015 /usr/bin/google-chrome -> /etc/alternatives/google-chrome

% ls -laog /etc/alternatives/google-chrome
lrwxrwxrwx 1 27 Mär 17  2015 /etc/alternatives/google-chrome -> /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable

As you can see

/usr/bin/google-chrome

is a symbolic link to

/etc/alternatives/google-chrome

and

/etc/alternatives/google-chrome

is a symbolic link to

/usr/bin/google-chrome-stable

If you have installed e.g. google-chrome-beta and google-chrome-stable, you can start

sudo update-alternatives --config google-chrome

to change the behavior, eg. in my case

There are 2 choices for the alternative google-chrome (providing /usr/bin/google-chrome).

  Selection    Path                           Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable   200       auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/google-chrome-beta     150       manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable   200       manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: