Re: is it possible to change apt-get's access priorities? (Redux...)

[listcomm@ml1.net]

> On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 17:15:13 -0700
> listcomm@ml1.net wrote:
> 
> > I'm able to make "apt-get" work from either CD-ROM or from the
> > archive. I've got all the entries for the CD-ROM and the archives
> > correct. The problem is whether or not it's possible to rearrange
> > "apt-get"'s priorities for how it selects packages and dependencies.
> > 
> > One quote from the document you pointed at, is what I'd mentioned
> > earlier:
> > 
> > "It's important to note that APT always looks for the most recent
> > versions of packages. Therefore, if your /etc/apt/sources.list
> > were to list an archive that had a more recent version of a package
> > than the version on the CD, APT would download the package from
> > there."
> > 
> > The thing is, what I *want* it to do, in a case where I'm just
> > trying to load something initially and get it running, is to go get
> > whatever it can find from the stable distribution on the CD-ROM, to
> > start with.  Then if I don't like that, or whatever it is doesn't
> > work, I want to point it at an upgrade on a distribution archive.
> > But the behavior (as the above quote suggests) seems to be that it
> > will go for the most recent version no matter what.
> 
> Hello,
> 
> If I'm understanding you properly, you want apt-pinning to work with 4
> repositories: 1) CDs, 2) stable on debian.org servers, 3) testing on
> debian.org server and 4) unstable on debian.org servers.
> 
> You'll need an /etc/apt/preferences file, if you don't have one already.
> Here's how I had it set for using Woody with an occasional package from
> Testing and Unstable:
> 
> Package: *
> Pin: release a=stable
> Pin-Priority: 900
> 
> Package: *
> Pin: release a=testing
> Pin-Priority: 60
> 
> Package: *
> Pin: release a=unstable
> Pin-Priority: 60
> 
> You can also set the following line in /etc/apt/apt.conf, but I didn't
> find it essential when I was using it:
> 
> APT::Default-Release "stable";

I finally got around to trying this again, and unfortunately, it still
didn't work, even with those mods.

I needed to install the "locales" package, which had never been
installed at all, and instead of going and getting it off my CD-ROM,
"apt-get" insisted on trying to contact the Debian mirror.  Once again,
I had to delete everything but the CD-ROM entries in the "sources.list"
file, before "apt-get" would get the package off the CD-ROMs.

I suspect that there is an updated version of the "stable" release of
the
package on the mirror site - is that possible? - and that "apt-get" is
insisting
on getting the *latest version* of the "stable" release of the package?

Yes, no?  (and if "yes" to both of the preceding, does anyone know of
a way to override that behavior so that I can get the initial package
load off the CD-ROM and then go upgrade to a later version later on
if necessary?)