Re: Firestarter for Testing (Sarge)?

[Ben Bettin <bwbettin@gmail.com>]

After a lot of reading, the problem is solved.  I'm running
firestarter on Sarge and it works great :)

I read through Chapter 6 of the Debian Reference manual,
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference/reference.en.html.  I
created the file /etc/apt/prefences and placed the following in it:

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

Package: firestarter
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 1100

Package: *
Pin: release o=Debian
Pin-Priority: -10
----------

What this file does is define the priorities apt should use for the
specified packages (you can read about it in 'man apt_preferences'). 
The first block tells it that testing is the default distribution and
all packages should only have their testing version installed.  The
second block tells it that for the 'firestarter' package ONLY, it
should ONLY use the unstable version and ignore the testing and stable
versions.  The third block sort of reinforces the whole "only install
testing versions" thing from the first block.

I also had to adjust my /etc/apt/sources.list to include the unstable
repositories so that I could get the packages.  Here's my new
sources.list:

----------
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US testing/non-US main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main contrib non-free

deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ testing main

deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/non-US main contrib non-free

deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ unstable main
----------

Now when I run 'aptitude' and update the listing it hits all of the
servers listed above.  It did pull in all of the unstable package
listings, HOWEVER, it only lets me install the 'firestarter' package. 
For all of the other packages from unstable it has '<none>' listed for
both the currently installed version and the available version.

One thing to keep in mind, some of the unstable packages require
dependencies that are ALSO in the unstable branch.  From what I read,
it's VERY risky to start installing unstable libraries and things in a
primarily testing installation.  I lucked out and firestarter only
required things that were in testing, so I could install it without
worrying too much.  If it poops out I can remove it without having to
worry about other things getting messed up from the unstable
dependencies that got installed.

So in the future when firestarter makes it into testing, I'll first
PURGE firestarter.  Then adjust my /etc/apt/preferences to remove the
second block, and adjust /etc/apt/sources.list to remove the unstable
repositories.  Then startup aptitude and clear the package listing,
update to get a new list from my new sources.list, then install the
testing version of firestarter.

I think this will work great for others who run testing and only want
one or two packages from unstable.

Thanks once again to everyone who helped point me in the right
direction.  I hope my little summary will help others.

Ben