[SOLVED] how to pin a package to be installed from specific repo?

tripialos · 07-03-2015, 04:03 AM

I am running a host with debian wheezy and i wish to install a specific package from debian`s testing repo. However i want the rest packages, updates, etc to be done from the stable (wheezy) repo.

How do i do that?

So far i added testing repo to sources.list and updated the cache but this means the system will pull all packages from testing.

JaseP · 07-03-2015, 04:14 AM

I think what you want to do is pinning the package...

Look here:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/17023...ges-from-a-ppa

The principle should be the same for using testing as opposed to a PPA...

Head_on_a_Stick · 07-03-2015, 04:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tripialos

I am running a host with debian wheezy and i wish to install a specific package from debian`s testing repo.

Backport it to wheezy, it is very simple to do.

https://wiki.debian.org/SimpleBackportCreation

Read this: https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDeb..._FrankenDebian

If you want to use APT pinning, make sure you read:

Code:

man apt_preferences

tripialos · 07-03-2015, 05:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Head_on_a_Stick

Backport it to wheezy, it is very simple to do.

https://wiki.debian.org/SimpleBackportCreation

Read this: https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDeb..._FrankenDebian

If you want to use APT pinning, make sure you read:

Code:

man apt_preferences

Thanks for your replay

i have already read the man page and i configured the apt preferences as follows:

Quote:

root@station:/etc/apt# cat preferences

Package: *
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 850

Package: tomcat7
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 800

However when i try to clarify it doesn`t seem to work

Quote:

root@station:/etc/apt# apt-cache policy apache2
apache2:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 2.4.10-11
Version table:
2.4.10-11 0
850 http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ testing/main amd64 Packages
2.2.22-13+deb7u4 0
500 http://http.debian.net/debian/ wheezy/main amd64 Packages
2.2.22-13+deb7u3 0
500 http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates/main amd64 Packages

As you can see from above it apt chooses to install apache2 from testing
Am i doing something wrong here?

Head_on_a_Stick · 07-03-2015, 05:28 AM

FFS just backport it...

Which package is it?

I can backport it for you if you want.

APT pinning is really for experts only.

tripialos · 07-03-2015, 05:45 AM

I found out why it was not working, actually i found a source from https://wiki.debian.org/AptPreferences where a guy had a similar problem with mine.

Quote:

Notes from GeorgiosZarkadas
I found that using a higher than 500 value to pin testing/unstable resulted in apt-get upgrade wanting to upgrade all packages with a newer version to testing/unstable even while I had stable pinned with a higher value than testing/unstable.

After, querying the outcome of apt-cache policy <some-package> for a number of the packages that apt-get upgrade considered that they should be upgraded, I concluded that if there are multiple versions with candidates pinned to 500 or higher, then pinning is considered after the version number. Thus the highest version with the highest pin weight among the candidates of that (and only that) version is selected.

Having this mind i changed my apt preferences to:

Quote:

root@station:/etc/apt# cat preferences
Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 400

Package: tomcat7
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 401

Then it worked as expected

Quote:

root@station:/etc/apt# apt-cache policy apache2
apache2:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 2.2.22-13+deb7u4
Version table:
2.4.10-11 0
400 http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ testing/main amd64 Packages
2.2.22-13+deb7u4 0
500 http://http.debian.net/debian/ wheezy/main amd64 Packages
2.2.22-13+deb7u3 0
500 http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates/main amd64 Packages