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1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
2<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd" [
4
5<!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent">
6%aptent;
7
8<!ENTITY % aptverbatiment SYSTEM "apt-verbatim.ent">
9%aptverbatiment;
10
11<!ENTITY % aptvendor SYSTEM "apt-vendor.ent">
12%aptvendor;
13]>
14
15<refentry>
16
17 <refentryinfo>
18 &apt-author.jgunthorpe;
19 &apt-author.team;
20 &apt-email;
21 &apt-product;
22 <!-- The last update date -->
23 <date>2014-01-18T00:00:00Z</date>
24 </refentryinfo>
25
26 <refmeta>
27 <refentrytitle>sources.list</refentrytitle>
28 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
29 <refmiscinfo class="manual">APT</refmiscinfo>
30 </refmeta>
31
32 <!-- Man page title -->
33 <refnamediv>
34 <refname>sources.list</refname>
35 <refpurpose>List of configured APT data sources</refpurpose>
36 </refnamediv>
37
38 <refsect1><title>Description</title>
39 <para>
40 The source list <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename> is designed to support
41 any number of active sources and a variety of source media. The file lists one
42 source per line, with the most preferred source listed first. The information available
43 from the configured sources is acquired by <command>apt-get update</command>
44 (or by an equivalent command from another APT front-end).
45 </para>
46 <para>
47 Each line specifying a source starts with type (e.g. <literal>deb-src</literal>)
48 followed by options and arguments for this type.
49 Individual entries cannot be continued onto a following line. Empty lines
50 are ignored, and a <literal>#</literal> character anywhere on a line marks
51 the remainder of that line as a comment.
52 </para>
53 </refsect1>
54
55 <refsect1><title>sources.list.d</title>
56 <para>The <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list.d</filename> directory provides
57 a way to add sources.list entries in separate files.
58 The format is the same as for the regular <filename>sources.list</filename> file.
59 File names need to end with
60 <filename>.list</filename> and may only contain letters (a-z and A-Z),
61 digits (0-9), underscore (_), hyphen (-) and period (.) characters.
62 Otherwise APT will print a notice that it has ignored a file, unless that
63 file matches a pattern in the <literal>Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently</literal>
64 configuration list - in which case it will be silently ignored.</para>
65 </refsect1>
66
67 <refsect1><title>The deb and deb-src types</title>
68 <para>The <literal>deb</literal> type references a typical two-level Debian
69 archive, <filename>distribution/component</filename>. The
70 <literal>distribution</literal> is generally an archive name like
71 <literal>stable</literal> or <literal>testing</literal> or a codename like
72 <literal>&stable-codename;</literal> or <literal>&testing-codename;</literal>
73 while component is one of <literal>main</literal>, <literal>contrib</literal> or
74 <literal>non-free</literal>. The
75 <literal>deb-src</literal> type references a Debian distribution's source
76 code in the same form as the <literal>deb</literal> type.
77 A <literal>deb-src</literal> line is required to fetch source indexes.</para>
78
79 <para>The format for a <filename>sources.list</filename> entry using the
80 <literal>deb</literal> and <literal>deb-src</literal> types is:</para>
81
82 <literallayout>deb [ options ] uri suite [component1] [component2] [...]</literallayout>
83
84 <para>Alternatively a rfc822 style format is also supported:
85 <literallayout>
86 Types: deb deb-src
87 URIs: http://example.com
88 Suites: stable testing
89 Sections: component1 component2
90 Description: short
91 long long long
92 [option1]: [option1-value]
93
94 Types: deb
95 URIs: http://another.example.com
96 Suites: experimental
97 Sections: component1 component2
98 Enabled: no
99 Description: short
100 long long long
101 [option1]: [option1-value]
102 </literallayout>
103 </para>
104
105 <para>The URI for the <literal>deb</literal> type must specify the base of the
106 Debian distribution, from which APT will find the information it needs.
107 <literal>suite</literal> can specify an exact path, in which case the
108 components must be omitted and <literal>suite</literal> must end with
109 a slash (<literal>/</literal>). This is useful for the case when only a
110 particular sub-section of the archive denoted by the URI is of interest.
111 If <literal>suite</literal> does not specify an exact path, at least
112 one <literal>component</literal> must be present.</para>
113
114 <para><literal>suite</literal> may also contain a variable,
115 <literal>$(ARCH)</literal>
116 which expands to the Debian architecture (such as <literal>amd64</literal> or
117 <literal>armel</literal>) used on the system. This permits architecture-independent
118 <filename>sources.list</filename> files to be used. In general this is only
119 of interest when specifying an exact path, <literal>APT</literal> will
120 automatically generate a URI with the current architecture otherwise.</para>
121
122 <para>In the traditional style sources.list format since only one
123 distribution can be specified per line it may be necessary to have
124 multiple lines for the same URI, if a subset of all available
125 distributions or components at that location is desired. APT will
126 sort the URI list after it has generated a complete set internally,
127 and will collapse multiple references to the same Internet host,
128 for instance, into a single connection, so that it does not
129 inefficiently establish an FTP connection, close it, do something
130 else, and then re-establish a connection to that same host. This
131 feature is useful for accessing busy FTP sites with limits on the
132 number of simultaneous anonymous users. APT also parallelizes
133 connections to different hosts to more effectively deal with sites
134 with low bandwidth.</para>
135
136 <para><literal>options</literal> is always optional and needs to be surrounded by
137 square brackets. It can consist of multiple settings in the form
138 <literal><replaceable>setting</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></literal>.
139 Multiple settings are separated by spaces. The following settings are supported by APT
140 (note however that unsupported settings will be ignored silently):
141 <itemizedlist>
142 <listitem><para><literal>arch=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
143 can be used to specify for which architectures information should
144 be downloaded. If this option is not set all architectures defined by the
145 <literal>APT::Architectures</literal> option will be downloaded.</para></listitem>
146 <listitem><para><literal>arch+=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
147 and <literal>arch-=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
148 which can be used to add/remove architectures from the set which will be downloaded.</para></listitem>
149 <listitem><para><literal>trusted=yes</literal> can be set to indicate that packages
150 from this source are always authenticated even if the <filename>Release</filename> file
151 is not signed or the signature can't be checked. This disables parts of &apt-secure;
152 and should therefore only be used in a local and trusted context. <literal>trusted=no</literal>
153 is the opposite which handles even correctly authenticated sources as not authenticated.</para></listitem>
154 </itemizedlist></para>
155
156 <para>It is important to list sources in order of preference, with the most
157 preferred source listed first. Typically this will result in sorting
158 by speed from fastest to slowest (CD-ROM followed by hosts on a local
159 network, followed by distant Internet hosts, for example).</para>
160
161 <para>Some examples:</para>
162 <literallayout>
163deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main contrib non-free
164deb http://security.debian.org/ &stable-codename;/updates main contrib non-free
165 </literallayout>
166
167 </refsect1>
168
169 <refsect1><title>URI specification</title>
170
171 <para>The currently recognized URI types are:
172 <variablelist>
173 <varlistentry><term><command>file</command></term>
174 <listitem><para>
175 The file scheme allows an arbitrary directory in the file system to be
176 considered an archive. This is useful for NFS mounts and local mirrors or
177 archives.</para></listitem>
178 </varlistentry>
179
180 <varlistentry><term><command>cdrom</command></term>
181 <listitem><para>
182 The cdrom scheme allows APT to use a local CD-ROM drive with media
183 swapping. Use the &apt-cdrom; program to create cdrom entries in the
184 source list.</para></listitem>
185 </varlistentry>
186
187 <varlistentry><term><command>http</command></term>
188 <listitem><para>
189 The http scheme specifies an HTTP server for the archive. If an environment
190 variable <envar>http_proxy</envar> is set with the format
191 http://server:port/, the proxy server specified in
192 <envar>http_proxy</envar> will be used. Users of authenticated
193 HTTP/1.1 proxies may use a string of the format
194 http://user:pass@server:port/.
195 Note that this is an insecure method of authentication.</para></listitem>
196 </varlistentry>
197
198 <varlistentry><term><command>ftp</command></term>
199 <listitem><para>
200 The ftp scheme specifies an FTP server for the archive. APT's FTP behavior
201 is highly configurable; for more information see the
202 &apt-conf; manual page. Please note that an FTP proxy can be specified
203 by using the <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> environment variable. It is possible
204 to specify an HTTP proxy (HTTP proxy servers often understand FTP URLs)
205 using this environment variable and <emphasis>only</emphasis> this
206 environment variable. Proxies using HTTP specified in
207 the configuration file will be ignored.</para></listitem>
208 </varlistentry>
209
210 <varlistentry><term><command>copy</command></term>
211 <listitem><para>
212 The copy scheme is identical to the file scheme except that packages are
213 copied into the cache directory instead of used directly at their location.
214 This is useful for people using removable media to copy files around with APT.</para></listitem>
215 </varlistentry>
216
217 <varlistentry><term><command>rsh</command></term><term><command>ssh</command></term>
218 <listitem><para>
219 The rsh/ssh method invokes RSH/SSH to connect to a remote host and
220 access the files as a given user. Prior configuration of rhosts or RSA keys
221 is recommended. The standard <command>find</command> and <command>dd</command>
222 commands are used to perform the file transfers from the remote host.
223 </para></listitem>
224 </varlistentry>
225
226 <varlistentry><term>adding more recognizable URI types</term>
227 <listitem><para>
228 APT can be extended with more methods shipped in other optional packages, which should
229 follow the naming scheme <package>apt-transport-<replaceable>method</replaceable></package>.
230 For instance, the APT team also maintains the package <package>apt-transport-https</package>,
231 which provides access methods for HTTPS URIs with features similar to the http method.
232 Methods for using e.g. debtorrent are also available - see &apt-transport-debtorrent;.
233 </para></listitem>
234 </varlistentry>
235 </variablelist>
236 </para>
237 </refsect1>
238
239 <refsect1><title>Examples</title>
240 <para>Uses the archive stored locally (or NFS mounted) at /home/jason/debian
241 for stable/main, stable/contrib, and stable/non-free.</para>
242 <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian stable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
243
244 <para>As above, except this uses the unstable (development) distribution.</para>
245 <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
246
247 <para>Source line for the above</para>
248 <literallayout>deb-src file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
249
250 <para>The first line gets package information for the architectures in <literal>APT::Architectures</literal>
251 while the second always retrieves <literal>amd64</literal> and <literal>armel</literal>.</para>
252 <literallayout>deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main
253deb [ arch=amd64,armel ] http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main</literallayout>
254
255 <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at archive.debian.org, and uses only
256 the hamm/main area.</para>
257 <literallayout>deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive hamm main</literallayout>
258
259 <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
260 directory, and uses only the &stable-codename;/contrib area.</para>
261 <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; contrib</literallayout>
262
263 <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
264 directory, and uses only the unstable/contrib area. If this line appears as
265 well as the one in the previous example in <filename>sources.list</filename>
266 a single FTP session will be used for both resource lines.</para>
267 <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable contrib</literallayout>
268
269 <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at ftp.tlh.debian.org, under the
270 universe directory, and uses only files found under
271 <filename>unstable/binary-i386</filename> on i386 machines,
272 <filename>unstable/binary-amd64</filename> on amd64, and so
273 forth for other supported architectures. [Note this example only
274 illustrates how to use the substitution variable; official debian
275 archives are not structured like this]
276 <literallayout>deb http://ftp.tlh.debian.org/universe unstable/binary-$(ARCH)/</literallayout>
277 </para>
278 </refsect1>
279
280 <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
281 <para>&apt-cache; &apt-conf;
282 </para>
283 </refsect1>
284
285 &manbugs;
286
287</refentry>
288