Bug#1030041: release-notes: offer deb22 format for apt sources
Control: retitle 1030041 offer deb822 format for apt sources
Justin B Rye wrote on 2023-01-30:
> The familiar "single-line" format for apt sources in .list files is,
> in theory, gradually being deprecated in favour of the deb822 format
> in .sources files[1]. We can expect the old format to be supported
> for a few releases yet - for a start as I understand it we're still
> generating new installs with /etc/apt/sources.list - but we ought to
> at least take the first step of offering examples of the preferred
> format.
>
> Places that use the old format:
>
> old-stuff.dbk
> #old-sources "Checking your APT source-list files"
>
> upgrading.dbk throughout but especially
> #upgrade-process "Preparing APT source-list files"
>
> ...anywhere else?
>
> [1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2021/11/msg00026.html
We still haven't done anything about this. At present all our
documentation tells everyone to use the legacy one-liner format to do
the upgrade to trixie, at which point apt will start nagging them for
using a format it considers obsolete and deprecated.
Then again, by far the easiest way to switch is in fact to keep using
the old format until trixie, and then run "sudo apt modernize-sources"
at some point. This takes an enormous weight off our shoulders.
The Release Notes still need at least a mention of this issue and the
modernize-sources solution; example deb822 sources are annoyingly
longwinded, but I suppose we can get away with just pointing at
https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList
until forky, when we'll want to have *everything* in deb822.
--
JBR with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian
sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package
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