How to use preferences (/etc/apt/preferences)

[Alan Chandler <alan@chandlerfamily.org.uk>]

I tried to read the man page for apt_preferences but I am still not sure I 
understand what to do. I have a number of questions - any help would be 
welcome.

First - does /etc/apt/preferences file apply when you use dselect, or only 
when you use apt-get?

Second - what I currently do is
a) have /etc/apt/sources.list lines that get my packages from testing

b) When I want packages from unstable - I manually ftp them from debian.org 
mirror to a local mirror - manually also trying to also copy all the 
dependent packages - and refer to them with a separate sources.list line. 

It seems to me that the /etc/apt/preferences file would be a better approach, 
with some lines like

Package:*
Pin: a=testing
Pin Priority: 500

Package: xxx
Pin: a=unstable
Pin Priority: 998

Where xxx is the package name I want to install from unstable.

Is this correct?
What about the packages on which xxx depends?


-- 

  Alan - alan@chandlerfamily.org.uk
http://www.chandlerfamily.org.uk