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>2012-06-09T00:00:00Z</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 distribution [component1] [component2] [...]</literallayout>
  83
  84    <para>Alternatively a rfc822 style format is also supported:
  85    <literallayout>
  86      Type: deb
  87      URI: http://example.com
  88      Dist: stable
  89      Section: component1 component2
  90      [option1]: [option1-value]
  91
  92      Type: deb-src
  93      URI: http://example.com
  94      Dist: stable
  95      Section: component1 component2
  96      [option1]: [option1-value]
  97    </literallayout>
  98    </para>
  99
 100    <para>The URI for the <literal>deb</literal> type must specify the base of the
 101    Debian distribution, from which APT will find the information it needs.
 102    <literal>distribution</literal> can specify an exact path, in which case the
 103    components must be omitted and <literal>distribution</literal> must end with
 104    a slash (<literal>/</literal>). This is useful for the case when only a
 105    particular sub-section of the archive denoted by the URI is of interest.
 106    If <literal>distribution</literal> does not specify an exact path, at least
 107    one <literal>component</literal> must be present.</para>
 108
 109    <para><literal>distribution</literal> may also contain a variable,
 110    <literal>$(ARCH)</literal>
 111    which expands to the Debian architecture (such as <literal>amd64</literal> or
 112    <literal>armel</literal>) used on the system. This permits architecture-independent
 113    <filename>sources.list</filename> files to be used. In general this is only
 114    of interest when specifying an exact path, <literal>APT</literal> will
 115    automatically generate a URI with the current architecture otherwise.</para>
 116
 117    <para>Since only one distribution can be specified per line it may be necessary
 118    to have multiple lines for the same URI, if a subset of all available
 119    distributions or components at that location is desired.
 120    APT will sort the URI list after it has generated a complete set
 121    internally, and will collapse multiple references to the same Internet
 122    host, for instance, into a single connection, so that it does not
 123    inefficiently establish an FTP connection, close it, do something else,
 124    and then re-establish a connection to that same host. This feature is
 125    useful for accessing busy FTP sites with limits on the number of
 126    simultaneous anonymous users. APT also parallelizes connections to
 127    different hosts to more effectively deal with sites with low bandwidth.</para>
 128
 129    <para><literal>options</literal> is always optional and needs to be surrounded by
 130    square brackets. It can consist of multiple settings in the form
 131    <literal><replaceable>setting</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></literal>.
 132    Multiple settings are separated by spaces. The following settings are supported by APT
 133    (note however that unsupported settings will be ignored silently):
 134    <itemizedlist>
 135    <listitem><para><literal>arch=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
 136    can be used to specify for which architectures information should
 137    be downloaded. If this option is not set all architectures defined by the
 138    <literal>APT::Architectures</literal> option will be downloaded.</para></listitem>
 139    <listitem><para><literal>arch+=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
 140    and <literal>arch-=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
 141    which can be used to add/remove architectures from the set which will be downloaded.</para></listitem>
 142    <listitem><para><literal>trusted=yes</literal> can be set to indicate that packages
 143    from this source are always authenticated even if the <filename>Release</filename> file
 144    is not signed or the signature can't be checked. This disables parts of &apt-secure;
 145    and should therefore only be used in a local and trusted context. <literal>trusted=no</literal>
 146    is the opposite which handles even correctly authenticated sources as not authenticated.</para></listitem>
 147    </itemizedlist></para>
 148
 149    <para>It is important to list sources in order of preference, with the most
 150    preferred source listed first. Typically this will result in sorting
 151    by speed from fastest to slowest (CD-ROM followed by hosts on a local
 152    network, followed by distant Internet hosts, for example).</para>
 153
 154    <para>Some examples:</para>
 155    <literallayout>
 156 deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main contrib non-free
 157 deb http://security.debian.org/ &stable-codename;/updates main contrib non-free
 158    </literallayout>
 159
 160  </refsect1>
 161
 162  <refsect1><title>URI specification</title>
 163
 164     <para>The currently recognized URI types are:
 165    <variablelist>
 166     <varlistentry><term><command>file</command></term>
 167     <listitem><para>
 168     The file scheme allows an arbitrary directory in the file system to be
 169     considered an archive. This is useful for NFS mounts and local mirrors or
 170     archives.</para></listitem>
 171     </varlistentry>
 172
 173     <varlistentry><term><command>cdrom</command></term>
 174     <listitem><para>
 175     The cdrom scheme allows APT to use a local CD-ROM drive with media
 176     swapping. Use the &apt-cdrom; program to create cdrom entries in the
 177     source list.</para></listitem>
 178     </varlistentry>
 179
 180     <varlistentry><term><command>http</command></term>
 181     <listitem><para>
 182     The http scheme specifies an HTTP server for the archive. If an environment
 183     variable <envar>http_proxy</envar> is set with the format
 184     http://server:port/, the proxy server specified in
 185     <envar>http_proxy</envar> will be used. Users of authenticated
 186     HTTP/1.1 proxies may use a string of the format
 187     http://user:pass@server:port/.
 188     Note that this is an insecure method of authentication.</para></listitem>
 189     </varlistentry>
 190
 191     <varlistentry><term><command>ftp</command></term>
 192     <listitem><para>
 193     The ftp scheme specifies an FTP server for the archive. APT's FTP behavior
 194     is highly configurable; for more information see the
 195     &apt-conf; manual page. Please note that an FTP proxy can be specified
 196     by using the <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> environment variable. It is possible
 197     to specify an HTTP proxy (HTTP proxy servers often understand FTP URLs)
 198     using this environment variable and <emphasis>only</emphasis> this
 199     environment variable. Proxies using HTTP specified in
 200     the configuration file will be ignored.</para></listitem>
 201     </varlistentry>
 202
 203     <varlistentry><term><command>copy</command></term>
 204     <listitem><para>
 205     The copy scheme is identical to the file scheme except that packages are
 206     copied into the cache directory instead of used directly at their location.
 207     This is useful for people using removable media to copy files around with APT.</para></listitem>
 208     </varlistentry>
 209
 210     <varlistentry><term><command>rsh</command></term><term><command>ssh</command></term>
 211     <listitem><para>
 212     The rsh/ssh method invokes RSH/SSH to connect to a remote host and
 213     access the files as a given user. Prior configuration of rhosts or RSA keys
 214     is recommended. The standard <command>find</command> and <command>dd</command>
 215     commands are used to perform the file transfers from the remote host.
 216     </para></listitem>
 217     </varlistentry>
 218
 219     <varlistentry><term>adding more recognizable URI types</term>
 220     <listitem><para>
 221     APT can be extended with more methods shipped in other optional packages, which should
 222     follow the naming scheme <package>apt-transport-<replaceable>method</replaceable></package>.
 223     For instance, the APT team also maintains the package <package>apt-transport-https</package>,
 224     which provides access methods for HTTPS URIs with features similar to the http method.
 225     Methods for using e.g. debtorrent are also available - see &apt-transport-debtorrent;.
 226     </para></listitem>
 227     </varlistentry>
 228   </variablelist>
 229  </para>
 230  </refsect1>
 231
 232  <refsect1><title>Examples</title>
 233    <para>Uses the archive stored locally (or NFS mounted) at /home/jason/debian
 234    for stable/main, stable/contrib, and stable/non-free.</para>
 235    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian stable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 236
 237    <para>As above, except this uses the unstable (development) distribution.</para>
 238    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 239
 240    <para>Source line for the above</para>
 241    <literallayout>deb-src file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 242
 243    <para>The first line gets package information for the architectures in <literal>APT::Architectures</literal>
 244    while the second always retrieves <literal>amd64</literal> and <literal>armel</literal>.</para>
 245    <literallayout>deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main
 246 deb [ arch=amd64,armel ] http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main</literallayout>
 247
 248    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at archive.debian.org, and uses only
 249    the hamm/main area.</para>
 250    <literallayout>deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive hamm main</literallayout>
 251
 252    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 253    directory, and uses only the &stable-codename;/contrib area.</para>
 254    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; contrib</literallayout>
 255
 256    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 257    directory, and uses only the unstable/contrib area. If this line appears as
 258    well as the one in the previous example in <filename>sources.list</filename>
 259    a single FTP session will be used for both resource lines.</para>
 260    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable contrib</literallayout>
 261
 262    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at ftp.tlh.debian.org, under the
 263    universe directory, and uses only files found under
 264    <filename>unstable/binary-i386</filename> on i386 machines,
 265    <filename>unstable/binary-amd64</filename> on amd64, and so
 266    forth for other supported architectures. [Note this example only
 267    illustrates how to use the substitution variable; official debian
 268    archives are not structured like this]
 269    <literallayout>deb http://ftp.tlh.debian.org/universe unstable/binary-$(ARCH)/</literallayout>
 270    </para>
 271  </refsect1>
 272
 273  <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
 274    <para>&apt-cache; &apt-conf;
 275    </para>
 276  </refsect1>
 277
 278  &manbugs;
 279
 280 </refentry>
 281