I've found XCHAT 2.0.5 in the unstable section of Debian's package archive - http://packages.debian.org/unstable/net/xchat.html.

How can i modify the sources.list file so that i can do a clean apt-get? I tried to install one package at a time but it is really frustrating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (every package depends on some 3 other packages!) Thanks in advanced... (And since i'm on the same question, how can i make this thing, generic? i.e. since i'm generally new, how can i add a website to the sources.list file - i know that it takes the form of "deb http://site.address main/unstable" but either i'm stupid, or out of luck, but I always get this error - "couldn't stat source package list.."

Thanks in advance.. Ganninu.

well after adding something to your /etc/apt/sources.list you need to UPDATE: apt-get update, after that you are ready to install.

Yes i know, but I get this error:

The entries you made in sources.list did not work. Here is the error message from apt:

? E: Dynamic MMap ran out of room E: Error occured while processing vifm (NewPackage) E: Problem with MergeList
? /var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.uk.debian.org_debian_dists_unstable_main_binary-i386_Packages E: The package lists or status
? file could not be parsed or opened.

You need to add a line APT::Cache-Limit 10000000; to the file /etc/apt/apt.conf if it does not exist then create it.

Thanks, it really worked!!!

However, I still couln't reach my ultimate goal - that to install xchat version 2.0.5.

I found a new mirror: ftp.it.debian.org/debian

I included in the sources.list as :

deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian unstable main non-free contrib

Still, I cannot get my hands on Xchat v.2.0.5 (which I know for sure it's there - ftp://ftp.it.debian.org/debian/pool/main/x/xchat):

debian:/home/james# apt-get update
Hit http://ftp.it.debian.org unstable/main Packages
Hit http://ftp.it.debian.org unstable/main Release
Hit http://ftp.it.debian.org unstable/non-free Packages
Hit http://ftp.it.debian.org unstable/non-free Release
Hit http://ftp.it.debian.org unstable/contrib Packages
Hit http://ftp.it.debian.org unstable/contrib Release
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
debian:/home/james# apt-cache search xchat
xchat - IRC client for X similar to AmIRC <--- this is prolly the older version (xchat1.0.8)
xchat-common - Common files for X-Chat
xchat-text - IRC client for console similar to AmIRC
xirssi - GTK Version of irssi (Development version)
debian:/home/ganni# apt-get install xchat*
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package xchat-2.0.5
debian:/home/ganni# apt-get install xchat-2.0.5
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package xchat-2.0.5
debian:/home/ganni# apt-get install xchat_2.0.5
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package xchat_2.0.5
debian:/home/ganni# apt-get install xchat_2.0.5*
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package xchat_2.0.5-3_i386.deb
debian:/home/ganni# apt-get install xchat_2*
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package xchat_2.0.5-3_i386.deb

You would need a line to install like apt-get install xchat/unstable , apt-get install -t unstable xchat or apt-get install xchat=2.0.5-3 to install the exact version. It looks like you still have sources for stable (Woody) in your sources list are you trying to use apt pinning? If so what have you put in your /etc/apt/apt.conf and /etc/apt/preferences files? If you want to continue to using stable without pulling in a lot of packages from unstable you could use a backport for woody from Apt-get.org it looks like you can get 2.0.5-2 for woody from there.

I'll try it when I arrive home... In the mean time I'd like to ask you what do you mean by "apt pinning". You also said that "looks like you still have sources for stable (Woody) in your sources list" - but i commented out every apt source from the sources.list file and left only this line:
deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian unstable main non-free contrib

Does it still get the stable only since my woody release is "stable" ??

Last but not least - (I went to the apt-get.org site and found it useful) - what is a backport when we talk about stable/unstable?


I thought I was getting to know debian, but now I'm more confused than ever

Ok, I tried them, and this is the result I got:

debian:/home/ganni# apt-get install xchat/unstable
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
E: Release 'unstable' for 'xchat' was not found
debian:/home/ganni# apt-get install xchat*/unstable
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
E: Release 'unstable' for 'xchain' was not found
debian:/home/ganni# apt-get install -t unstable xchat
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Sorry, xchat is already the newest version.
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
debian:/home/ganni# apt-get install xchat=2.0.5-3
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
E: Version '2.0.5-3' for 'xchat' was not found
debian:/home/ganni# apt-get install xchat=2.0.5-3/unstable
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
E: Version '2.0.5-3/unstable' for 'xchat' was not found



Moreover. the /etc/apt/apt.conf file contains only one line:
APT::Cache-Limit 10000000;

(Ah, I have no /etc/apt/preferences file)

OK what does apt-cache policy xchat show on your machine here is what it looks like on my machine.

You use the apt-cache policy to find out where programs are going to be installed from and what version they would be. To answer your question from above apt-pinning is what you are trying to do right now but have not set it up properly and you are doing it in a not recommended manner. When you use "pinning" you are trying to get packages from another branch like testing when you are running stable or from unstable when you are running testing you should not be trying to get a package from unstable if you are running stable there is just too much difference between them for packages to install cleanly. To get the newer version of the package when running stable you should use the backport I suggested.

To answer another question from above a backport is when someone has made a debian .deb package which has been compiled for the branch you are using in this case stable from sources that in this case again are from the unstable branch which allows you to in essence install an unstable package on your machine with few problems because you will already have or can get the required libraries and not have to update your whole install or most of it to unstable to get the program you want.

The reason you have no /etc/apt/preferences is because you have not setup your machine for the apt pinning this is where you would put the preferences as to which branch you would like apt to get programs from and their default priority what my file looks like:
These settings tell apt that testing has a higher priority than unstable so if I want to install a program then it wiil look to testing for the install unless I specifically tell it to install from unstable with the commands I posted above.

Hopefully this does not get you more confused what you really should do is put a line for the backport in the sources.list uncomment your stable sources comment out the unstable line and apt-get update then try and install the backport of Xchat then do some reading on the apt packaging system get a better understanding of how it works and then venture into something like pinning to get the latest apps if that is want you want.

ganni@debian:~$ apt-cache policy xchat
xchat:
Installed: 1.8.9-0woody2
Candidate: 2.0.5-2.backports.org.1
Version Table:
2.0.5-2.backports.org.1 0
500 http://www.backports.org stable/all Packages
*** 1.8.9-0woody2 0
500 http://security.debian.org stable/updates/main Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Yes so now all you should have to do is apt-get install xchat and it will install it. What this show you is that you have 1.8.9-0.... installed and the candidate for installation is 2.0.5-2 when you install.

[edit]
You may only have to do an apt-get upgrade to install the package.
[/edit]

Ah OK, I will try it at home... I refrained from doing so yesterday, cos I thought it will re-install the previous version of xchat! Thanks - will let you know the outcome

First of all thanks a lot for your continuous support, HappyTux - I really learned a lot from this post. Let me tell you how things went after the previous post:

I did an apt-get install xchat (since the newer version was a candidate), however I was getting an error about some broken packages which couldn't be installed. (Apparently xchat 2.0.5 depended on some critical libs such as glib2, gtk2+, lib6c.. ). To go around this problem i then did:

apt-get remove xchat

and then

apt-get install xchat

This last command installed the latest xchat and alllll the deps (some 74MB of debs packages!!) which not only resulted in a newer xchat, but also an imporoved look, since the fonts now look nicer (could be because of the new gtk2+)..

Thanks again.

hey there...
as you saw..just updating 1 package gave you MANY more...i would suggest using the pinning method....it will keep your unstable packages updated without having to go the full blown unstable route..
some of the packages, like libc6 will get security updates (normally for buffer overruns)...the updates will only be included in the stable package..however only the next version of the unstable package will have the fix(normally uploaded the same day)---unless you pin, if you have your sources set to stable, the unstable packages will only get updated if you do it manually-package by package

---just my .02 euros..
have fun...
LP