Re: sources.list: experimental
Hans,
On Wed 03 December 2008 05:37, Hans-J. Ullrich wrote:
> Am Dienstag, 2. Dezember 2008 schrieb Jochen Schulz:
> > Lennart Sorensen:
> > > On Tue, Dec 02, 2008 at 06:35:59PM +0100, Hans-J. Ullrich wrote:
> > >> just a question:
> > >>
> > >> adding an experimental source to the sources list (just to install a
> > >> special application from this), will an "aptitude upgrade" or "apt-get
> > >> upgrade" overwrite ALL installed packages ?
> > >
> > > upgrade doesn't do anything involving adding or removing packages.
> >
> > Well, but it upgrades packages. In other words: it overwrites existing
> > packages. That's what Hans asked.
>
> Yes, that is exactly, what I wanted to know: does it overwrite all
> installed packages with packages with higher version numbers ? ( = versions
> from experimental).
>
> > > dist-upgrade does, so really using anything other than dist-upgrade
> > > ever is just a mistake.
> >
> > No, it is not. Using 'upgrade' (or 'safe-upgrade' when using aptitude)
> > is the safe way to update your system without changing the set of
> > installed packages.
> >
> > In the past, this list received many mails from people asking for help
> > after apt(itude) removed some important package from their system. If
> > all these people had made a habit of using dist-upgrade only when they
> > know they really need it, they would have saved themselves a lot
> > trouble.
> >
> > Of course, if you always check apt(itude)'s output before confirming its
> > actions, you don't "break" your system either. But it is never a mistake
> > to try the safe alternative first.
> >
> > J.
>
> I think my original question was wrong told: It is not a matter of the
> difference between upgrade and dist-upgrade (this difference i well known
> by me), my question aimed more to like "Hey, if there are higher versions
> in experimental, are they automatically installed, when doing apt-get
> dist-upgrade (like it behave, if I am running testing and add the
> repository of sid in sources.list) ? Or are all versions in experimental
> ignored, as experimental is handled in a special way ?"
I certainly am not an expert at package management. In fact, I think
maintaining a mixed system probably is one of the least understood areas of
Debian policy, but some time ago, I came across this recommendation. I tend
to run Stable, with a few packages from Testing, and keep this line in
my /etc/apt/apt.conf file:
APT::Default-Release "stable";
IIANM this ensures that my majority, stable packages will not be upgraded to
testing packages, even though I have the testing repository in my
sources.list file. Pinning is another option, but I understand it even less.
HTH
Cheers!
cmr
> ...similar to that, you know what I mean.
>
> And yes, Jochen, I know the matter of dist-upgrade, and I always say:
>
> upgrade is normal, but dist-upgrade is the "intelligent" upgrade (as you
> heve to think, before confirming)!
>
> Best regards
>
> Hans
--
Debian 'Etch' - Registered Linux User #241964
--------
"More laws, less justice." -- Marcus Tullius Ciceroca, 42 BC
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