[svlug] debian pinning

[Ivan Sergio Borgonovo]

I still have some doubt about apt configuration.

I just had the time to do some tests and the first results puzzled me
a bit.

A) I added to apt.conf
APT {
	Default-Release "testing";
};

B) I added unstable to source.list as well.


aptitude update tells me
Err http://security.debian.org unstable/updates/main Packages
  404 Not Found

well... this could be reasonable... is it?


I'd like to have some clarification about dist-upgrade and upgrade.
I'm used to use dist-upgrade more often than upgrade on SUSE since
large packages like KDE etc... tend to have some weird dependency
problems. Keeping in source.list just one release of SUSE seems to
keep things going. Using upgrade only generally results in not being
able to update major packages as KDE.

Now... I landed on Debian... and well things works as they are
supposed to work, or at least as nearly as what I think they should be
supposed to work.

Now...
1) testing only in source.list
2) apt-get dist-upgrade
3) add unstable to source list
4) apt-get upgrade doesn't list any package
5) apt-get dist-upgrade list:
The following NEW packages will be automatically installed:
  libdb4.3
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libdb4.3
The following packages will be upgraded:
  apt apt-utils aptitude aptitude-doc-en base-config bash binutils-avr
  bsdutils console-common cpp-3.3 cpp-3.3-doc cron debconf
debconf-i18n  debconf-utils debianutils discover1-data e2fslibs
e2fsprogs fdutils  g++-3.3 gcc-3.3 gcc-3.3-base gcc-3.3-doc gcc-avr
gettext gettext-base  hotplug ifupdown initrd-tools iptables
kernel-image-2.4.27-2-686  kernel-image-2.6.8-2-686 less libacl1
libapache-mod-php4  libapache2-mod-auth-pam
libapache2-mod-auth-sys-group libapache2-mod-php4  libattr1 libblkid1
libcomerr2 libcurl3 libg2c0 libgcrypt11 libglib2.0-0  libgnutls11
libjpeg-progs libjpeg62 libltdl3 liblzo1 libnewt0.51 libpcre3 
libreadline4 libruby1.8 libss2 libstdc++5 libstdc++5-3.3-dev
libtasn1-2  libtiff4 liburi-perl libusb-0.1-4 libuuid1 libxml2
libxml2-utils  libxslt1.1 login m4 makedev manpages mime-support mount
mutt nano  netkit-inetd ntp ntp-doc ntp-server ntp-simple ntpdate
passwd php4  php4-cgi php4-cli php4-common php4-curl php4-dbtcp
php4-dev php4-domxml  php4-gd php4-imagick php4-imap php4-mcal
php4-mcrypt php4-mhash php4-odbc  php4-pear php4-pgsql php4-ps
php4-recode php4-sqlrelay php4-xslt  po-debconf ppp procps psmisc
python2.3 sed sqlrelay usbutils util-linux  wget whiptail zlib-bin
zlib1g
The following packages are RECOMMENDED but will NOT be
installed:  libglib2.0-data libmail-sendmail-perl mtools
python2.3-cjkcodecs  python2.3-iconvcodec python2.3-japanese-codecs
python2.3-korean-codecs  xml-core

They seems too few for moving from testing to unstable. And coming
from SUSE where dist-upgrade seems a necessary evil even if you stay
in the same release I'd like to know if I plan to stay in the same
release (testing) and add only some packages from unstable, upgrade
will be enough to keep my system up to date.


-- 
Ivan Sergio Borgonovo
http://www.webthatworks.it