[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Some myths regarding apt pinning



On Fre, 2003-01-24 at 14:59, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> Since some people seem to thing apt pinning can solve all problems with 
> outdated packages in stable I want to explain why this is wrong:
> 
> apt pinning is good if you are running testing but need a package (e.g.
> a security update) from unstable.
> 
> There are people that use apt pinning to install packages from unstable 
> on a woody system. This is bad because nearly every installation of a 
> package from unstable pulls a new libc6 and it's also possible that it 
> pulls a new Perl and Python. Then some _very_ essential components of 
> your system are upgraded to the potentially more buggy versions in 
> unstable.

apt-get tells you beforehand exactly what it's going to do.
apt-listchanges even shows you the changelogs so you have a very late
point of no return. I claim everybody who accidently upgraded perl
deserves it.

The only thing that could be better is perhaps that apt-get should
display what it's going to install in terms of ... NEW packages ...
perl/unstable or so. 

I often recommend apt pinning if somebody asks about installing woody
but wanting newre packages. I'd expect that reading a man page and
thinking about what one is going to do is something that everybody
learns to do on a unixy system.

cheers
-- vbi

-- 
get my gpg key here: http://fortytwo.ch/gpg/92082481

Attachment: signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part


Reply to: