Re: apt-get upgrade message in sid
On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 10:57, Keshwarsingh Nadan <kn@debian.mu> wrote:
> "Lets assume you want to install iceweasel version whatever from
> experimental or backports"
>
> If we wanted to install a testing version of a program (for example), we
> would have to override the choices we make when we use apt-get, e.g.
> apt-get install [packagename]/testing, or if necessary apt-get -t
> testing install [packagename].
And thats is the point: APT wants to help with this feature to reduce the
times a user "has" to use '-t experimental' (or '-t backports') in favor of
'/experimental' as switching the whole release for every package is more
dangerous than for a very limited set of packages - but in the past it was
way 'easier' to just say '-t experimental'.
Its still 'easier' but the alternative '/experimental' became more useful…
> Note that another option would be to
> momentarily make testing the highest priority in /etc/apt/preferences, then
> override what will be installed, e.g. apt-get install
> [packagename]/testing. Read this. At this time however, we are not using apt
> pinning.
"Read this" should btw remove the section about MMap running out of the
room. The issue is fixed in squeeze as the MMap grows now automatically
(on all architectures by the way, even kfreebsd).
But yes, i can sign that preferences are not for beginners - its a very
powerful feature, but as we know with great power comes great responsibility…
I would recommend to have a look at 'man apt_preferences' for details.
Using preferences in this usecases isn't a good idea, as -t does exactly the
same as a preferences entry for testing would do (with a pin-priority of 990).
Best regards
David Kalnischkies
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