Greg Folkert: sorry for the CC, but you kept ignoring my other messages about this.
Dear all, In the thread 'smooth upgrades' that was still running a few days ago there was the question of release names vs. code-names in the Default-Release option. The docs http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ch-apt-get.en.html#s-default-version and 'man apt_preferences' ('man apt.conf' doesn't mention it at all) only talk about release, but don't exclude code-names specifically. I thought I should do an experiment: Let's suppose an etch system, but the user needs (wants) some packages from unstable or even experimental and no apt.conf think:~# cat /etc/apt/sources.list deb http://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ etch main deb http://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ sid main deb http://ftp.ro.debian.org/debian/ experimental main think:~# cat /etc/apt/apt.conf cat: /etc/apt/apt.conf: No such file or directory think:~# apt-cache policy Package files: 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status release a=now 1 http://ftp.ro.debian.org experimental/main Packages release o=Debian,a=experimental,l=Debian,c=main origin ftp.ro.debian.org 500 http://ftp.ro.debian.org sid/main Packages release o=Debian,a=unstable,l=Debian,c=main origin ftp.ro.debian.org 500 http://ftp.ro.debian.org etch/main Packages release o=Debian,a=testing,l=Debian,c=main origin ftp.ro.debian.org Pinned packages: etch and sid have equal priority. A dist-upgrade will upgrade the system to sid, but we want to keep it running etch. It was suggested that if the sources.list uses code-names, than Default-Release should work with code-names as well. think:~# echo 'APT::Default-Release "etch";' > /etc/apt/apt.conf think:~# apt-cache policy Package files: 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status release a=now 1 http://ftp.ro.debian.org experimental/main Packages release o=Debian,a=experimental,l=Debian,c=main origin ftp.ro.debian.org 500 http://ftp.ro.debian.org sid/main Packages release o=Debian,a=unstable,l=Debian,c=main origin ftp.ro.debian.org 500 http://ftp.ro.debian.org etch/main Packages release o=Debian,a=testing,l=Debian,c=main origin ftp.ro.debian.org Pinned packages: No effect whatsoever! Let's change 'etch' to 'testing'. think:~# sed -i -e s/etch/testing/ /etc/apt/apt.conf think:~# apt-cache policy Package files: 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status release a=now 1 http://ftp.ro.debian.org experimental/main Packages release o=Debian,a=experimental,l=Debian,c=main origin ftp.ro.debian.org 500 http://ftp.ro.debian.org sid/main Packages release o=Debian,a=unstable,l=Debian,c=main origin ftp.ro.debian.org 990 http://ftp.ro.debian.org etch/main Packages release o=Debian,a=testing,l=Debian,c=main origin ftp.ro.debian.org Pinned packages: Now 'etch' has priority 990 vs 500 of sid. This will keep the system running *unstable* (when etch is released apt will want to upgrade to next testing). If you don't spot any mistakes in my logic I would like to file a bug report against the docs to avoid any future confusion. Regards, Andrei -- If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. (Albert Einstein) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]