Re: dselect

[Florian Ernst <florian@uni-hd.de>]

David Z Maze wrote:
> Thomas Gies <thomas.gies@gmx.de> writes:
>> Why does dselect update packages from unstable even if I put
>>
>> APT::Default-Release "testing";
>>
>> in my apt.conf?
> 
> Because dselect isn't terribly cognizant of APT; dselect was written
> first, and doesn't really understand why one would have multiple
> available versions of the same package, so it just picks the newest
> one ("unstable").  If you're looking for a CUI dpkg frontend that
> understands more of what APT is up to, you might look at aptitude.

Hm, it works with dselect if you have pinning similar to this:

fernst@live:~$ cat /etc/apt/preferences
X-comment: ============================ Track apt-build as primary
Package: *
Pin: release a=apt-build
Pin-Priority: 800

X-comment: ============================ Track testing as default
Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 500

X-comment: ============================ Make unstable available
Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 50


But you will only have access to one version of a package when using
dselect.
aptitude on the other hand offers access to all versions of a package.


HTH,
Flo