Re: Moving from unstable to testing

[Jason Slaughter <jason@slaughter.com>]

> Set /etc/apt/preferences to prefer testing over unstable (I have priority
> 700 for testing, 600 for unstable).

I did that first actually, but it doesn't seem to work. 
My /etc/apt/preferences has:

Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 650

apt-get upgrade still tries to update about 50 packages however, all from 
unstable. If I remove unstable from my sources.list, then these upgrades 
aren't offered anymore, so they're definitely from unstable, not testing.

Also, pinning *is* working because if I install a new package it installs from 
testing, not unstable, even if both are in my sources.list.

> No, AFAICT apt-show-version doesn't save this information. If the
> installed version is in testing or older than testing, it will diplsay
> testing. If the installed version is newer than testing, it will display
> unstable. Look at the 'apt-cache policy <package>' output, I'm sure you
> can figure out exactly how that algorithm works.

I imagine apt-get upgrade is working the same way -- it doesn't "know" where 
the package came from, but it will upgrade it to the latest unstable if the 
current version is > testing but < unstable.

> Summary: you don't have to do anything. Just don't upgrade any pacakge
> from unstable.

It looks to me like I have to avoid apt-get upgrade until my packages "catch 
up" to testing. Fortunately the apt-show-versions man page was helpful on 
this. To upgrade only upgradable packages in testing, it has the following:

apt-get install `apt-show-versions -u -b | fgrep testing`

So it looks like I'll be doing this until all my unstable packages make it 
into testing.

Thanks for your help!

Jason