doc/sources.list.5.xml

   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>
 163 deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main contrib non-free
 164 deb 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
 253 deb [ 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