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#1 2018-06-21 02:54:30

Llewellen
Member
From: Vancouver Island, Canada
Registered: 2018-06-07
Posts: 15  

Enable Backports - Newbie Question

The Devuan site cautions against leaving backports enabled and advises only doing so for the purpose of obtaining specific packages.

But if I add backports in sources.list to obtain a couple of packages that I need from beowolf, won't I have to leave it enabled so as to receive updates for those packages?  Or perhaps I have misunderstood?

Thank you.


It is not that I am mad; it's only that my head is different from yours - Diogenes of Sinope

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#2 2018-06-21 04:09:58

Dutch_Master
Member
Registered: 2018-05-31
Posts: 275  

Re: Enable Backports - Newbie Question

What you need is apt-pinning. Google is your friend wink

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#3 2018-06-21 04:21:36

golinux
Administrator
Registered: 2016-11-25
Posts: 3,137  

Re: Enable Backports - Newbie Question

Or comment it out and re-enable every so often.

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#4 2018-06-21 04:38:06

Llewellen
Member
From: Vancouver Island, Canada
Registered: 2018-06-07
Posts: 15  

Re: Enable Backports - Newbie Question

Dutch_Master wrote:

What you need is apt-pinning. Google is your friend wink

From Debian Wiki:

"When pinning, you must ensure compatibility of packages by yourself since Debian does not guarantee it. Note that pinning is completely optional, and Debian does not encourage pinning without thorough consideration.

/!\ Seriously, don't do this. Doing this will break Debian and leave you with a system that doesn't work and can't be fixed. Use Backports instead! "


It is not that I am mad; it's only that my head is different from yours - Diogenes of Sinope

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#5 2018-06-21 08:16:14

devuser
Member
Registered: 2018-04-30
Posts: 176  

Re: Enable Backports - Newbie Question

Interesting. I didn't know leaving backports enabled was considered harmful (at least not more than using backports in the first place). I was under the impression the pinning issue had been "fixed" as in by default apt would only use backports when instructed or on upgrades when the original package already came from backports and not try to to upgrade random packages if there was a newer backports version available? I understand that backports are a moving target and might have unclean packages slip through but an official stance to manually disabling them is new to me.

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#6 2018-06-21 09:21:17

cynwulf
Member
Registered: 2017-10-09
Posts: 234  

Re: Enable Backports - Newbie Question

To my knowledge backports is not harmful and does/did not, by default, allow automatic upgrades anyway.  This is not, for example, like running testing with the unstable repository enabled and no pinning/default release set.

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#7 2018-06-21 09:31:22

devuser
Member
Registered: 2018-04-30
Posts: 176  

Re: Enable Backports - Newbie Question

cynwulf wrote:

To my knowledge backports ... does/did not, by default, allow automatic upgrades anyway.

Exactly. This is how it was and how it is right now. I just remember a brief timespan where adding backports actually resulted in apt wanting to upgrade my whole system to backports versions if available and i had to use pinning to keep it in check. Not sure if it was something i broke though. At some point it just worked again like we are all used to.

Last edited by devuser (2018-06-21 09:31:50)

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#8 2018-06-21 11:47:33

fsmithred
Administrator
Registered: 2016-11-25
Posts: 2,409  

Re: Enable Backports - Newbie Question

devuser wrote:
cynwulf wrote:

To my knowledge backports ... does/did not, by default, allow automatic upgrades anyway.

Exactly. This is how it was and how it is right now. I just remember a brief timespan where adding backports actually resulted in apt wanting to upgrade my whole system to backports versions if available and i had to use pinning to keep it in check. Not sure if it was something i broke though. At some point it just worked again like we are all used to.

No, it wasn't something you broke. Early on, auto.mirror had the wrong priority on backports, and it got fixed. Then pkgmaster had the wrong priority on backports, and that got fixed. I keep it pinned, just in case.

/etc/apt/preferences.d/releases

Package: *
Pin: release a=ascii-backports
Pin-Priority: 100

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#9 2018-06-21 12:36:03

devuser
Member
Registered: 2018-04-30
Posts: 176  

Re: Enable Backports - Newbie Question

fsmithred wrote:
devuser wrote:
cynwulf wrote:

To my knowledge backports ... does/did not, by default, allow automatic upgrades anyway.

Exactly. This is how it was and how it is right now. I just remember a brief timespan where adding backports actually resulted in apt wanting to upgrade my whole system to backports versions if available and i had to use pinning to keep it in check. Not sure if it was something i broke though. At some point it just worked again like we are all used to.

No, it wasn't something you broke. Early on, auto.mirror had the wrong priority on backports, and it got fixed. Then pkgmaster had the wrong priority on backports, and that got fixed. I keep it pinned, just in case.

/etc/apt/preferences.d/releases

Package: *
Pin: release a=ascii-backports
Pin-Priority: 100

Thanks for clarifying. Good to know my memory isn't all that faulty yet. Also who doesn't like hearing he wasn't the culprit after all wink

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