Please help me out with my preferences file and apt-get /aptitude. I am at wits end.
 

Hello. I have a new Debian Squeeze install on a remote server and I must keep php 5.2.x for now even though it is unsupported (I have an old script which is encoded and provided by a 3rd party which I rely on). I have successfully done that by making use of archive (lenny) and pulling from there. But my problem is that now I need to update my codecs and ffmpeg.

What is happening with this now is:

1. php 5.3.x is being held back correctly. (good)
2. It does not seem to be pulling in the newer ffmpeg from the multimedia repo (bad).


What I want it to pull from in order is:

- any php5* (or other related php 5.2.x file) use archive.debian.org

- For ffmpeg and all codecs, use the www.debian-multimedia.org repo.

- For everything else, use Debian Squeeze as normal.

Here's my /etc/apt/sources.list:


And my /etc/apt/preferences.d/preferences:

The preferences file is a monster because evidently wildcards besides a lone '*' do not work (i.e. specifying 'php5*' is not supported) and I need to keep all the php5* files at php 5.2.x. The top lines just repeat different packages. Don't waste your time checking each individually. The bottom ones are for Squeeze and debian-multimedia.

Please let me know where I am going wrong. Thank you for your assistance. :)

Well I believe I have everything all messed up. :cry:

Here is the output of 'apt-cache policy' after some tinkering:

I theorize I don't have the preferences for the Lenny archive correctly configured and his is messign it up.

Any help would be appreciated or failing that some really good documentation for pinning. I've found some resources online but they have been lacking in thoroughness. I need something comprehensive and up-to-date.

Solved this one myself.

Correct /etc/apt/preferences.d/preferences:

'apt-cache policy' now shows:

Then:

apt-get update
apt-get -V upgrade
apt-get -V dist-upgrade

did the trick and pulled in what I needed while keeping the old php 5.2.x. :)

My error was in using 'a=lenny' as opposed to 'a=oldstable'. I also had not realized that I apparently needed to do a 'apt-get -V dist-upgrade' to pull in the new major versions. This was a nice learning experience.

Marking solved. :)