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Re: Best way to install a few testing pkgs on stable system



On Thu, Oct 18, 2007 at 11:04:31PM -0500, Gordon Pedersen wrote:
> Running an etch system I nonetheless may want to install a testing
> package or two.
> 
> If I use pinning, I have a clue about how to go about it, and have
> seen a debian wiki page about that.
> 
> But I really could use a more general education on how to safely mix a
> few testing pkgs into a stable system.

I doubt there is anything safe about a mixed system, but here is how I 
did it:

1.

/etc/apt/apt.conf (create it if it doesn't exist):

APT::Default-Release "stable";

Note: release names (lenny) will not work here, long standing 
(whishlist?) bug (#141495, #313041, ...)

2.

In /etc/apt/sources.list copy the deb line for stable but put testing 
(or lenny) instead

3.

Update and install your desired package with your preferred frontend:

aptitude install -t lenny foobar

> If there is a safe way in some cases I'd like to learn more about it.
> (I doubt it's safe in all cases, based on my recent need to abandon
> installing rubygems from testing into my etch system).
> 
> Does anyone have suggested methods or reading?

It's difficult to give a general guideline for "safe" installing of 
testing packages, but I would stay away from any case where the upgraded 
packages are more than a few (including dependencies). (Actually, for 
testing purposes, I managed to install an unstable kernel including udev 
on a sarge machine (when sarge was still stable), but YMMV)

Regards,
Andrei
-- 
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
(Albert Einstein)

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