Package pinning problem

postb99 · 03-21-2005, 04:10 PM

Hello,

I have the following in /etc/apt/sources.list :

Code:

barbara@babs1:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list 

deb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib
deb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian-non-US testing/non-US main contrib
deb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian sid main non-free contrib
deb http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian-non-US sid/non-US main contrib

deb-src http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian/ testing main

# marillat
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ unstable main

# rarewares - audio
deb http://www.rarewares.org/debian/packages/unstable/ ./

This is my /etc/apt/preferences :

Code:

barbara@babs1:~$ cat /etc/apt/preferences 
Package: *
Pin: release O=Debian,a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: *
Pin: release O=Debian,a=testing
Pin-Priority: 200

Package: *
Pin: release o=Christian Marillat
Pin-Priority: 500

Package: *
Pin: release o=xmixahlx,a=unstable
Pin-Priority: -1

Package: *
Pin: release o=DotDeb
Pin-Priority: 100

However I have this result :

Code:

root@babs1:/home/barbara# apt-cache policy k3b
k3b:
  Installé : 0.11.18-2
  Candidat : 0.11.99+cvs20050301.00-0.0
 Table de version :
     0.11.99+cvs20050301.00-0.0 0
        990 http://www.rarewares.org ./ Packages
     0.11.20-2 0
        990 http://ftp.fr.debian.org sid/main Packages
     0.11.20-1 0
        200 http://ftp.fr.debian.org testing/main Packages
 *** 0.11.18-2 0
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

rarewares' Release file :

Code:

Archive: unstable
Origin: xmixahlx
Label: xmixahlx_rarewares-unstable
Architecture: i386

What did I do wrong ? Package pinning doesn't work as expected... I don't expect the rarewares version to be candidate...

I also tried with :

Code:

Package: *
Pin: origin xmixahlx
Pin-Priority: -1

I use rarewares' repository only for a few packages and don't want it to mess up with k3b.

Thanks a lot for any hint.

Barbara

m_yates · 03-22-2005, 08:53 AM

Something is odd. Your preferences file does not match what the output of apt-cache policy is giving you. For k3b, the output of apt-cache policy says the pin priority is 990 for unstable even though you have it set to 900. It is also saying the pin priority is 990 for xmixahlx even though you have it set to -1. Check the syntax in the preferences file. I noticed it appears that you have a capital O instead of lowercase o for origin in some entries in preferences. I'm not sure if that is the source of the problem though. Here is my preferences file:

Code:

Package: *
Pin: release o=Debian,a=experimental
Pin-Priority: 1

Package: *
Pin: release o=Debian,a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 600

Package: *
Pin: release o=Debian,a=testing
Pin-Priority: 650

Package: wine
Pin: version 0.0.20040615-1
Pin-Priority: 1001

Package: libwine
Pin: version 0.0.20040615-1
Pin-Priority: 1001

Package: wine-doc
Pin: version 0.0.20040615-1
Pin-Priority: 1001

Package: wine-utils
Pin: version 0.0.20040615-1
Pin-Priority: 1001

I have a specific version of wine set because this version works with one windows application that I need. With the above preferences, here is what I get for "apt-cache policy k3b":

Code:

k3b:
  Installed: 0.11.20-1
  Candidate: 0.11.20-1
  Version Table:
     0.11.20-2 0
        600 ftp://ftp.debian.org unstable/main Packages
 *** 0.11.20-1 0
        650 ftp://ftp.debian.org testing/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Here is what I get with apt-cache policy libwine:

Code:

libwine:
  Installed: 0.0.20040615-1
  Candidate: 0.0.20040615-1
  Package Pin: 0.0.20040615-1
  Version Table:
     0.0.20050310-1 1001
        600 ftp://ftp.debian.org unstable/main Packages
     0.0.20041201-1 1001
        650 ftp://ftp.debian.org testing/main Packages
 *** 0.0.20040615-1 1001
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Hope the above helps.

postb99 · 03-22-2005, 03:09 PM

Thank you very much, case can sometime break things ! I had a faulty option in /etc/apt/apt.conf and realized this morning I haven't checked this file.

I had :

Code:

APT::Cache-Limit 10000000;
Apt::Get::Purge;

instead of :

Code:

APT::Cache-Limit 10000000;
APT::Get::Purge;

Once I corrected this case my /etc/apt/preferences settings were correctly read.

Wow.

Barbara