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Re: question for sources.list



On Fri, Sep 02, 2005 at 11:58:20AM -0700, Andrew Sackville-West wrote:
> 
> 
> roberto wrote:
> >Hello, i was using sarge-testing for my laptop but now that sarge is
> >stable should i modify my sources.list substituting "testing" with
> >"stable"??
> >
> >Here is my sources.list
> >
> ># Official Debian mirror
> >deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib
> >deb-src http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib
> >deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian-non-US/ testing/non-US main contrib 
> >non-free
> >deb-src http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian-non-US/ testing/non-US main
> >contrib non-free
> >deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian/ unstable main non-free contrib
> >deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian-non-US/ unstable/non-US main
> >contrib non-free
> >deb-src http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
> >deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian/ ../project/experimental main
> >non-free contrib
> >
> ><<< munch >>>
> 
> yes you need to put
> 
> deb http://ftp...../debian/ stable main...
> deb-src http://,,,,/debian/ stable main ...
> 
> sources.list tells apt where to find the packages.
> 
> but you also need to edit /etc/apt/apt.conf
> and change the
> 
> APT::DefaultRelease line to
> 
> APT::DefaultRelease "stable"; [or "sarge"]
> 
> this tells apt which release to use.
> 

I have just run a test of the use of 'sarge' in apt.conf.
On my machine, currently running sarge/stable, the statement
APT::DefaultRelease "sarge" 
has no effect. Aptitude still goes for the highest version
number, which happens to be "etch" in 402 cases. I conclude
that one should not use release code names in apt.conf.

I have previously noted that one should not use release code
names in apt/preferences. So:

"Don't use release code names in configuring the apt system."

seems to me to be a good general rule.

As a comment to those who have used code names and think they
work: They work only if you have only one release in your sources.list,
and then they don't really work, they just don't matter because
there is never a choise of release to be made.

Personally, I was rather disappointed when I first made this discovery
in apt/preferences. I thought I had figured out a neat lazy-man's way
to handle the transitions from one stable release to the next.  But I
won't describe it because I have established that it doesn't work.

-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@mesanetworks.net



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