Newsgroups:  gmane.linux.debian.user
Date:        Thu, 8 Jul 2004 20:14:05 -0500

> The thing is, what I *want* it to do, in a case where I'm just
> trying to load something initially and get it running, is to go get
> whatever it can find from the stable distribution on the CD-ROM, to
> start with.  Then if I don't like that, or whatever it is doesn't
> work, I want to point it at an upgrade on a distribution archive.
> But the behavior (as the above quote suggests) seems to be that it
> will go for the most recent version no matter what.

If I'm understanding you properly, you want apt-pinning to work with 4 repositories: 1) CDs, 2) stable on debian.org servers, 3) testing on debian.org server and 4) unstable on debian.org servers.

You'll need an /etc/apt/preferences file, if you don't have one already. Here's how I had it set for using Woody with an occasional package from Testing and Unstable:

Package: *
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 60

Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 60

You can also set the following line in /etc/apt/apt.conf, but I didn't find it essential when I was using it:

APT::Default-Release "stable";

You will probably want to set the following line in /etc/apt/apt.conf as well, to avoid apt-get segfaulting during an update.

APT::Cache-Limit 10000000;

This should now give you only packages from stable (Woody), unless you ask for something different. It should also get Woody's packages off the CDs instead of the internet whenever possible. However, keep in mind that a lot has changed in Woody since it was first released, so if your cds are very old it may not use them much.

Also, there were a couple of large library upgrades between Woody and Sarge (testing), such as libc6. This may make it so that you can't install that neat package you want from Sarge until you upgrade libc6 and a few other related packages, making for a large download. (There is a library for libc6 to have backwards compatability, however, so you shouldn't have to worry about that part.)

Finally, if you use "apt-get -t release install packagename" (where release is testing or unstable, and packagename is the name of the package you want to install), instead of "apt-get packagename/release", it will download the needed dependencies from the same release as packagename, instead of downloading the package and using dependencies from your old release. This can be both good and bad, depending on your circumstances, but most often it's good.

Jacob

> > If I'm understanding you properly, you want apt-pinning to work with
> > 4 repositories: [...]
>
> This is really a good and comprehensive article. Some further
> questions:
>
> In order to get all stable, testing and unstable from the same server,
> I read that the the deb source line should be altered (but no how).
> Could you give us an example?

# Stable
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian woody main contrib non-free
# Testing
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian sarge main contrib non-free
# Unstable
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free

# Stable
deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian woody main contrib non-free
# Testing
deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian sarge main contrib non-free
# Unstable
deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free

> [...]
> > It should also get Woody's packages off the
> > CDs instead of the internet whenever possible.
>
> Can you explain this a bit please? The first line of my
> /etc/apt/sources.list (testing) is
>
> deb file:///cdrom/ sarge main.
>
> I think to pick cdrom first, you have to give sarge/woody the top
> priority, right?

> > You can also set the following line in /etc/apt/apt.conf, but I
> > didn't find it essential when I was using it:
> >
> > APT::Default-Release "stable";
>
> Interesting, that was what the article I was reading suggested...

> > Also, there were a couple of large library upgrades between Woody
> > and Sarge (testing), such as libc6.
>
> How big the difference is between testing and unstable? Anybody knows?