Sources.list to track stable and allow install from testing
If I want to be able to install some packages from testing (sarge?) while
tracking mainly stable (woody?), I gather that I need to add lines to
sources.list that identify a testing distribution.
I would like to be able to get packages from testing with a command like the
following, with stable being the default:
# apt-get -t testing install packagename
(From http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ch-apt-get.en.html.)
My best guess at the sources.list for this reads as follows:
-----------------------
deb http://linux.csua.berkeley.edu/debian/ stable main non-free contrib
deb-src http://linux.csua.berkeley.edu/debian/ stable main non-free contrib
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib
non-free
deb-src http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib
non-free
deb http://linux.csua.berkeley.edu/debian/ testing main non-free contrib
deb-src http://linux.csua.berkeley.edu/debian/ testing main non-free contrib
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US testing/non-US main contrib
non-free
deb-src http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US testing/non-US main contrib
non-free
deb http://debian.orst.edu/debian/ stable main non-free contrib
deb-src http://debian.orst.edu/debian/ stable main non-free contrib
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib
non-free
deb-src http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib
non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ stable/updates main contrib non-free
-----------------------
When editing the original sources.list to that above I just duplicated the
the top four lines in sources.list and replaced 'stable' with 'testing' in
the copied lines. Running apt-get update after this led to quite a few
errors about some duplication, with advice to run apt-get update again:
--------------------
...
Building Dependency Tree... Done
W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://non-us.debian.org stable/non-US/main
Packages
(/var/lib/apt/lists/non-us.debian.org_debian-non-US_dists_stable_non-US_main
_binary-i386_Packages)
W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://non-us.debian.org
stable/non-US/contrib Packages
(/var/lib/apt/lists/non-us.debian.org_debian-non-US_dists_stable_non-US_cont
rib_binary-i386_Packages)
W: Duplicate sources.list entry http://non-us.debian.org
stable/non-US/non-free Packages
(/var/lib/apt/lists/non-us.debian.org_debian-non-US_dists_stable_non-US_non-
free_binary-i386_Packages)
W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems
/etc/apt# apt-get update
-----------------
Running apt-get update again does not generate any errors.
I would like to be sure that I'm doing this right and not gumming up the
works. So here are a few questions:
- Why would 'apt-get update' complain about duplicates with the sources.list
above?
- What's the correct sources.list layout to enable tracking stable while
grabbing some packages from testing once in a while?
- Should deb-src be included as well as deb for the testing distribution
list(s)?
The docs that I've found aren't entirely clear on these issues.
BTW, if I have testing in the list, should security stay there too? I've
read in some of the docs that security should be used only for stable since
testing changes often. But then I want to track stable, so I would expect
that security should remain in the list.
Thanks,
Dave
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