On 2021-09-03 at 13:40, Greg Wooledge wrote: > On Fri, Sep 03, 2021 at 06:24:31PM +0100, Brian wrote: > >> On Fri 03 Sep 2021 at 10:40:32 -0400, The Wanderer wrote: >> >>> deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main non-free >>> contrib deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main >>> non-free contrib > >> Surely - if you have a package installed from a previous release, >> it does not get removed simply because testing does not have it? > > Correct. > >> It looks to me that the first line in sources.list does not help in >> this situation. > > Also correct, *but* it does help if you want to install something > from stable that has been removed from testing. Yep - and that's the main reason why I keep this arrangement. > In the absence of "pinning", using the two lines that The Wanderer > posted would give you a testing system, with the option to pull in > packages from stable if needed. It's a viable setup. Sensible. > > The problem is, sometimes people think it's the opposite of that. > They think they can run a "mostly stable" system with the option to > cherry-pick packages from testing. This is *NOT* the case. And no > amount of "pinning" will make it so. I hadn't even considered that angle, although now that it's been brought up I recall having seen it discussed in the past. No, indeed - that's not going to work, and it should not be anything close to recommended. I would not want my description of my own setup to be interpreted as an endorsement of trying to do that. -- The Wanderer The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
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