Re: Pinning (was Re: Error while upgrading from Wheezy to Stretch)
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On Thu, Apr 19, 2018 at 02:59:04PM -0400, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 19, 2018 at 02:47:05PM -0400, Gene Heskett wrote:
> > Hijacking a thread here, but it reads like I might be reading an expert.
> >
> > "Pinning" is an interesting subject Roberto, interesting because the info
> > on how to do it is generally skipped over, or only mentioned in passing,
> > with NO examples of how to do it in the man pages available.
>
> For backports, the <https://backports.debian.org/Instructions/>
> say:
>
> All backports are deactivated by default (i.e. the packages are pinned
> to 100 by using ButAutomaticUpgrades: yes in the Release files.
>
> Beyond that, pinning is strongly discouraged in the IRC channel. The
> channel's bot says:
>
> Bugs are explained at
> https://web.archive.org/web/20121017070250/http://carlo17.home.xs4all.nl/howto/debian.html#errata
>
> I don't know why the page was removed, forcing the archive retrieval.
> But there you have it.
>
> Usually a user's attempt to do pinning is one of the steps leading to
> what we call a "frankendebian" system, which is completely broken and
> unfixable. Hence, the strong discouragement against using it.
Know what you're doing :-)
In general, pinning is a way to have packages from a later distro
without getting everything upgraded.
That said, if you pull in anything which wants a newer libc,
for example, you're going to have fun :-)
Pulling in some new kernels. as Gene is doing looks (more or
less) harmless... as long as the libc plays along.
In general, I'd say: if you are running stable, pinning is
almost always a bad idea. If you are running testing, there
are more reasons for it.
But be prepared to second-guess your installer and to understand
why it wants to take decisions the way it wants.
FWIW, I've been running a Frankendebian (testing/unstable) for well
over two years. It's OK, but, just for one example, I couldn't run
aptitude, because its dependency resolver became hopelessly confused
and always wanted to deinstall half of my system (apt was mostly
fine, though). Be prepared to deal with such things.
Two references to skim (a bit oldish, but AFAIK still relevant):
This one has examples for pinning:
https://wiki.debian.org/AptPreferences#Pinning
This one talks about the kind of problems you might get
https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2003/01/msg01644.html
Cheers & take care
- -- t
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