Mike Miller <mbmiller at taxa.epi.umn.edu> wrote: > Is it possible to just update certain packages when new versions > become available and save the major updates for later? Seems like > it would be possible, but I'm not familiar with the details of > package updating. Depending upon the newer package's dependencies on other packages, you may be able to use the pinning options in /etc/apt/preferences. The manpage is apt_preferences(5). You can then specify multiple archives in your /etc/apt/sources.list file without worrying about unstable being installed instead of stable for default installations. It allows you to do: apt-get install -t unstable PACKAGE You can see what score packages from each repository will have by using: apt-cache policy PACKAGE For example: $ apt-cache policy monotone monotone: Installed: 0.18-1 Candidate: 0.18-1 Version Table: 0.22-1 0 50 http://http.us.debian.org sid/main Packages *** 0.18-1 0 500 http://http.us.debian.org sarge/main Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status This shows that sid (unstable) has version 0.22-1 available, but that it won't be installed automatically. Instead, 0.18-1 has a higher pin priority and will be installed by default. This isn't exactly fool-proof, and you'll run into conditions that the command-line apt-get calls won't be able to handle. In which case, you could always install a package manually with dpkg. > I like the idea of a low-maintenance solution with up-to-date > versions of the most widely-used packages. Many people tie apt_preferences with custom local archives to carry the latest-and-greatest. i.e. # /etc/apt/sources.list entry for local repository deb file:/LOCAL/PATH local main contrib non-free deb-src file:/LOCAL/PATH local main contrib non-free In local, you've perhaps created an archive with something mini-dinstall, a daemon for updating Debian packages in a repository, or reprepro, a debian package repository producer. Set up /etc/apt/preferences to pull from local by default, stable second in line. etc. -- Chad Walstrom <chewie at wookimus.net> http://www.wookimus.net/ assert(expired(knowledge)); /* core dump */