Re: package versions in dselect, and Release file
Ian Zimmerman <itz@speakeasy.org> writes:
> What are the packaging frontends (dselect in particular) supposed to
> do when 2 sources from sources.list provide different version numbers
> of the same package?
Don't know for sure, but based on experience I'd say they use the
latest (and greates?) version.
> I have a potato system, but I downloaded a couple of upgraded packages from
> woody and placed them in a local mirror directory. I generated the
> Packages files with dpkg-scanpackages. That went fine, so I added a
> "deb file:" line for the local mirror to sources.list and run
> dselect. In the Select phase I could see the newer versions as
> available. I selected them. But the Install phase ignored my local
> mirror, tried to download the updates from the potato archive, and
> failed.
Make sure your local archive is mentioned before the rest. I maintain
a local mirror but it is usually lagging a bit behind (especially with
unstable). If your sources.list says something like:
deb file:/pub/debian unstable main
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable main
your packaging frontends should use the latest version and apt-get
will look in the local mirror first and only contact the official
archive if it can't find the version the frontend is looking for.
> I noted while dselect was hitting the sources it said something like
>
> deb file:/foo/bar Release Ignored
>
> Of course, I don't have a Release file in the mirror directory. Is
> that necessary for it to be recognized as a worthy source? If so, how
> do I generate one; dpkg-scanpackages doesn't. Or is there something
> else wrong with what I'm trying?
You don't need a Release file in your mirror, but if you want to shut
up apt a bit just look in /var/state/apt/lists/ and copy the relevant
Release file to your local mirror.
--
Olaf Meeuwissen Epson Kowa Corporation, Research and Development
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