Bug#45094: apt: apt could use a preference system for selecting from multiple URIs

[john_stevenson@mcg.mot.com]

Package: apt
Version: 0.3.12
Severity: wishlist

I find that with our local mirror of the Debian binaries we have the need
to have multiple URIs that head off-site (and thus are a lot slower to hit
that our local mirror).  For example, adding the URIs for KDE and source
packages go off-site.  It would be nice if a URI had one more field that was
a priority indicator.  apt would by default update using URIs at all priority
levels, but using a command-line option, one could indicate to use say only
priority 1 URIs.  In our case, we could do something like:

        apt-get --priority=1 update

If our mirror of the binaries was the only thing at priority 1 then it
would be the only thing that got updated into the database. 

Another use of this would be for local devel packages which contain
duplicate files or replace an official package for some local need.  It
would make it easy for an admin to quickly switch between apt databases.

Thanks,
John

-- System Information
Debian Release: potato
Kernel Version: Linux thix 2.2.10 #2 Wed Sep 8 17:12:58 MST 1999 i586 unknown

Versions of the packages apt depends on:
ii  libc6           2.1.2-1        GNU C Library: Shared libraries and timezone
ii  libstdc++2.10   2.95.1-2       The GNU stdc++ library