I want to use debian-stable with backports and was reading up about it. I need to add following to the sources.list:
Then I can install packages using command:
However, when I run apt-get update followed by dist-upgrade, will the libreoffice get updated automatically? Also will apt-cache search find packages from backports repo also? Thanks for your help.

See pinning & you may want to do a search on it!

The link that you gave ( https://sites.google.com/a/demonkuty...debianpackages ) is very interesting. Is this a good way to have the best of all versions: stable, testing and unstable? Can one just setup in this manner (without using names like squeeze, wheezy etc) and one may have a distro which upgrades regularly (except during freeze periods)? Or should one use this only for an occassional application? What is the best method to have latest libreoffice on debian stable?

If your meaning is mix packages from Stable, Testing and Unstable, the answer is definitely not. Do not mix Stable with other repositories, except backports.

From: http://wiki.debian.org/AptPreferences#Pinning (official view):
So backports are preferred over pinning.

What about my original questions regarding backports?

Hi rng,

I suspect that the author of the wiki you linked used the word "pinning" like "mixing stable with testing and unstable" (there's also a disclaimer there): as far as I know, it perfectly makes sense to pin packages from the backports repository.

And finally:

This should set apt to automatically update libreoffice from the backports repository, while all other packages would stick to stable. [Edit] It seems actually that apt's default behavior in squeeze is quite conservative regarding backports: even without a preferences file I get the same upgrade as with the settings above (see also caravel's post below).

Regarding backports in general, installing them on Debian stable should be done on an occasional basis and for single packages you need: using them extensively might give you problems with dependencies (they are compiled for stable but they're still packages from testing). This is the official version:

http://backports-master.debian.org/

Regarding generic vs. specific release names, using the generic names lets your system to be ready for upgrade when a new stable is released and your lists are updated, while with specific names you stick to your current release, until you edit the sources list. I'm not sure if an automatic upgrade to the next stable release is always the safest way: you have to be aware of many things and read the distribution-specific upgrade notes. This would be for a squeeze-to-wheezy upgrade:

http://www.debian.org/releases/wheez...rading.en.html

There's also something here on that matter:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ll-4175448555/

Kind regards,
Philip

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The backports repo is not set to do automatic upgrades, so normal upgrade or dist-upgrade will not upgrade the whole system to backports. As others have hinted, you should not just upgrade everything to backports as it was never intended to be used as a complete distribution.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks of a detailed information. I realize that backports cannot be used as a complete distro (unlike stable, testing, unstable or experimental). It cannot even be used to extend debian-stable, since packages from backports will not be regularly upgraded with apt-get upgrade or dist-upgrade commands.

Well, experimental is not a complete system, and that is exactly the point of backports, to extend debian stable. And yes, an update/upgrade will pull updates to packages installed from backports.

descendant_command :
caravel
Philip Lacroix
Ok. So if I install libreoffice from backports and run apt-get upgrade or dist-upgrade, libreoffice will get updated from backports and remaining system will get upgraded from stable repositories. This will occur even without a preference file.

Thanks for your patience. I am new to Debian.

Yes.

Yes, Debian is well worth the effort to learn!