Re: Pinning question

[Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>]

On Fri, Dec 05, 2003 at 10:10:37AM -0200, Leandro Guimarães Faria Corsetti Dutra wrote:
> Em Thu, 04 Dec 2003 09:47:21 -0500, Rich B escreveu:
> 
> > One of my servers is running stable, but I've added Unstable
> 
> 	If you *really, really* want to do it, there is a section on
> running mixed distributions in the apt HOWTO manual.

That does not tell you much on this particular subject.  
---
3.8 How to keep a mixed system

People often use the testing distribution because it is more stable than
unstable and more up-to-date than stable. However, users who would like
to run the latest versions of some packages but still rather not trust
their entire systems to unstable also have the option of running mixed
testing/unstable systems. On the flip side, more conservative users may
wish to run mixed stable/testing systems.

To do that, put the following line on /etc/apt/apt.conf:

     APT::Default-Release "testing";

Then, when going to install packages from unstable, just use the -t
switch:

     # apt-get -t unstable install packagename

Do not forget that to use packages from a version of Debian, one needs
to add an apt source line to the /etc/apt/sources.list file. In our
example's case, we need source lines for the unstable distribution
besides the testing ones.

---
Kind of short and this is the same effect as (edit and include in /etc/apt/preferences):

1st: pin=990 to testing
2nd: pin=991 to unstable

(No offence to the original author nor its maintainers including myself.
I know kov wanted it to be simple and short)

This does not solve issues related to conflicts.

I wrote in my debian-reference-en:
---
6.2.2 Set up APT system

If you try to track mixed environment as described here, you may likely
to hit some package dependency conflicts. It is good idea not to mix
flavors. Followings are for people who is willing to experiment knowing
some risks.

For selective upgrade while tracking the testing distribution, the APT
system (>Woody) must be set up as in Transition of APT to the Woody
version, Section 5.1 to use apt_preferences(5) features.

First, add the sources for stable, testing, and unstable to your
/etc/apt/sources.list. Then, edit /etc/apt/preferences to set the proper
Pin-Priority. [31] 
...

---
See more on 
 www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto       (same as package)
 www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference       (older)
 qref.sf.net                                (newer)

If you really really want to do it, just experiment :-)


Osamu