Re: Anyone Care to Critique my Apt Preferences? (was Re: apt-cacher as package rollback buffer)
On Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 06:41:35PM +0900, Osamu Aoki wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 11:15:24PM -0800, Freeman wrote:
> > I'd rather find out that the above Preferences are destructive here than
> > during an install!
>
> Your setting will install latest experimental of a package which you
> insalled from experimental. I see no reason to have stable or volatile
> when you are basically tracking testing or unstable.
Experimental: I failed to mention that I have the target release set at
testing. As I read the man, the 500 setting will respect the target
release.
Stable: True, and the setting is redundant. If there is no replacement version,
stable packages will be left alone either way.
Volatile: I was thinking of freshcalm but that setting wouldn't help anyway.
>
> FYI:
> The upcoming apt_preferences(5) manpage (e.g.: apt_0.7.26~exp2_i386.deb) states:
>
> Preferences are a strong power in the hands of a system administrator
> but they can become also their biggest nightmare if used without care!
> APT will not questioning the preferences so wrong settings will
> therefore lead to uninstallable packages or wrong decisions while
> upgrading packages. Even more problems will arise if multiply
> distribution releases are mixed without a good understanding of the
> following paragraphs. You have been warned.
>
> (Hmmm... s/multiply/multiple/ .. time to make another bug report.)
>
I've read that a few times. 8)
> > My ego may be the more delicately balanced but my system is the more
> > precious. :)
>
> This squeeze testing cycle has been rough because of major transitions.
> My recent upgrade in one of the multiboot setup from stable to unstable
> caused unbootable system.
>
Yep. I've never lost a file-system in 7 years of Debian until the
xserver-xorg/mesa upgrade.
> If your ego ticks you, testing only (or with testing security if
> available) is good idea. If something broke, add unstable while keeping
> testing as default (higher preference) to get fixed packages. Right
> now, stable and testing have too much gap usually to be useful. I would
> rather rely on my local package archive under /var/cache/apt/packages/*
> for recent but working packages.
>
So really I don't need a preferences file except for my emergency plan to
rollback to a cached version of a package. (apt-cacher keeps its cache on a
usb drive for my 3 machines. I am archiving versions by not cleaning it
until the next release.)
In that scenario, I would have gone ahead with an unwise package upgrade and
would be retreating to save my arse, er ("down ego, down boy") the system.
In which case, I pin the rolled back version to 1001. The preferences file
can live on in moderation for the sake of learning.
--
Kind Regards,
Freeman
Reply to: