Re: Backports installed without prompt if not in base suite: bug or feature ?

[Cyril Brulebois <kibi@debian.org>]

Hi,

[ Replying as a d-i guy, and quoting in full for context. ]

Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org> (2015-11-30):
> However, there is an exception: when a package is in the backports suite but
> not in the base suite, it will be installed by "apt install foo" without the
> need to select the backports suite.  For this reason, jessie-backports has not
> been added to the default sources.list in new installations.
> (<https://bugs.debian.org/764982>)
> 
> I was wondering if this was an unforseen limitation or a feature ?  (Sorry if
> this has been discussed already, in that case could you send me a hint of where
> it is archived ?).

I'd suggest reading Phil's reply (not really for a possible main/novel
split, but more about being explicit and about that being a possibly
somewhat generic apt issue):
  https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=764982#134

Teaching apt to ask explicitly in such a case would make the problem go
away as far as I'm concerned, and I'd be happy to have stable-backports
enabled through apt-setup. I'm therefore adding apt developers to the
loop to get their opinion (and debian-boot@).

> Do you think that it would be possible to request a change in APT, to
> remove the exception above, and therefore open the way to enable
> backports by default in Stable ?  The reason I ask is that there is a
> broad interest on making Debian image for clouds, that would contain
> mostly package from Stable, with only a few exceptions whithout which
> the image would not be functional enough.  However, it would be best
> if we could guarantee that "apt install foo" on these images will not
> install new backports (other than pulled by dependency trees).

Mraw,
KiBi.