Re: dist-upgrade and sources.list
Maurits van Rees wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 08, 2005 at 02:55:47AM -0700, Basajaun wrote:
> > My impression (correct me if I'm wrong) is that whatever sources you
> > put in "sources.list" have nothing to do with the version of Debian you
> > are running. Those lines only tell apt-get where to look for the
> > packages, but apt-get will ignore the ones not matching your version.
>
> Not true. It will download the list of updated packages from each
> valid line. If you have one line with woody, one with sarge, one with
> etch and one with sid then apt will download four package lists.
Yes, "apt-get update" will read every line, and update the package
list. What I meant is that "apt-get upgrade" will ignore the packages
from that list(s) that don't apply to your release.
> > Actually, while writing this post, I have read "man apt_preferences",
> > and I am still digesting it... anyway...
>
> Keep digesting. It is good stuff. ;-)
[snip]
> But all valid lines in your sources.list will lead to an update of an
> available package list. What you really want to do is explicitly tell
> apt which distribution you want to track. By default only packages for
> that distro will get upgraded. See below.
OK, we agree on that one.
> > The second question is the use of "apt-get dist-upgrade". Say I am
> > running Debian 3.1 Sarge (stable), and I want to upgrade to Debian 3.2
> > Etch (testing)... how does apt-get know it has to upgrade me to Etch,
> > and not Sid? It always upgrades stepwise (stable -> testing -> etch)?
> Look at the manual page of /etc/apt.conf:
>
> man apt.conf
>
> Actually I fail to see the info I am looking for there. Ah, it is in
> the apt_preferences man page you mentioned. The point of interest here
> is the Default-Release line. Put sarge or stable there. And if you
> want to track the new testing distro put etch or testing there. I
> think you can either handle it in the apt.conf or in the preferences
> file. Here is my /etc/apt.conf (I have no preferences file
> currently):
[snip]
> And on dist-upgrade: this is not meant just to upgrade to a new
> distribution. I used to think that too. It is a more thorough (and
> possibly more dangerous) method of upgrading. Say you have package-a
> version 1 installed, with no dependencies. A new version 2 becomes
> available, which has a new dependency on package-b, which you don't
> yet have installed. An 'apt upgrade' will do nothing. An 'apt
> dist-upgrade' will upgrade package-a from version 1 to version 2 and
> will install package-b.
So, my guess is that "apt-get dist-upgrade" is a kind of "do whatever
you have to do to make what I have in 'Default-Release' (or wherever)
be my current release". So dist-upgrade, by itself, is useless, unless
you have changed something in your preferences, right?
I was going to ask how to do the latter... but probably I would be
kindly recommended to do some RTFM (so I'll get to it when I have time)
:^)
Thanks,
Basajaun
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