Gentoo rocks -> Debian vs. Gentoo

der.hans plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us
Tue, 23 Apr 2002 14:50:04 -0700 (MST)


Am 23. Apr, 2002 schwätzte jtannenba so:

> Thanks for all the replies..I'll try it next time I
> need a new package that is not in the 'stable'.

There's a better way to do that. apt preferences. That's the killer app that
really makes apt a great system.

$ man apt_preferences
$ cat /etc/apt/preferences
Package: *
Pin: release stable
Pin-Priority: 600

Package: *
Pin: release testing
Pin-Priority: 70

Package: *
Pin: release unstable
Pin-Priority: 80
$ apt-get -t testing <package>

Keeping those Pin-Priorities under 100 keeps packages from those dists from
being loaded. The -t option overrides the preferences file and says to
choose that dist. Putting pin-priorities higher than 1000 allows downgrades
of packages and the -t flag won't override them.

You've got to have apt >= 0.5.3 for this to work. You've also got to have
the appropriate dists in your sources.list. If stable still doesn't have a
new enough apt, then update with unstable in your sources.list and install
just apt. After that you can can use preferences.

ciao,

der.hans
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