Re: Question on the new offical debian packages and apt <SOLVED>

[Brad Sims <bmsims1@insightbb.com>]

On Wednesday 23 February 2005 3:10 am, Kevin Mark wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 22, 2005 at 10:30:58PM -0600, Brad Sims wrote:
> > As I understand it there are now Official Packages for Mplayer... how do I 
> > ensure that I keep getting the latest from marillat?
> > 
> > I have the repository in my sources.list, but I am concerned about it 
> > pulling the one from Debian Official if the Debian Official Version is 
> > newer than marilat's. Or a better question: if the version numbers are
> > the same, which is pulled? 
> > 
> > I am well aware that apt will pull the deb with the highest version number; 
> > but I am unsure what apt does if the version number on the official servers
> > and a third-party repository are identical
> > 
> Hi Brad,
> IIRC, there may be a difference between the 2 versions. The marillat
> version will have non-DFSG stuff.
> -Kev

Thanks to the fine folks in #debian-devel on freenode, I have my answer...

I read 'man apt_preferences' and discovered the following:  Several  
instances  of  the same version of a package may be available when the
sources.list(5) file contains references to more than one source. In this
case apt-get downloads the instance listed earliest  in the sources.list(5)
file. The APT preferences file does not affect the choice of instance, only
the choice of version.

In other words, if you want unofficial packages to have priority over
official packages, place the unofficial repositories first in 
/etc/apt/sources.list. Bearing in mind that unless you have pinned a 
package, apt will pull the one with the highest priority

Travis Crump suggested placing the following in /etc/apt/preferences:

Package: *
Pin: release o=Christian Marillat
Pin-Priority: 999

Thanks for the help, everyone.
-- 
You know the three rings of marriage...

  Engagement ring, wedding ring and suffer ring.