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 ]>
  12
  13 <refentry>
  14
  15  <refentryinfo>
  16    &apt-author.jgunthorpe;
  17    &apt-author.team;
  18    &apt-email;
  19    &apt-product;
  20    <!-- The last update date -->
  21    <date>2012-06-09T00:00:00Z</date>
  22  </refentryinfo>
  23
  24  <refmeta>
  25    <refentrytitle>sources.list</refentrytitle>
  26    <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
  27    <refmiscinfo class="manual">APT</refmiscinfo>
  28  </refmeta>
  29
  30  <!-- Man page title -->
  31  <refnamediv>
  32     <refname>sources.list</refname>
  33     <refpurpose>List of configured APT data sources</refpurpose>
  34  </refnamediv>
  35
  36  <refsect1><title>Description</title>
  37    <para>
  38    The source list <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename> is designed to support
  39    any number of active sources and a variety of source media. The file lists one
  40    source per line, with the most preferred source listed first. The information available
  41    from the configured sources is acquired by <command>apt-get update</command>
  42    (or by an equivalent command from another APT front-end).
  43    </para>
  44    <para>
  45    Each line specifying a source starts with type (e.g. <literal>deb-src</literal>)
  46    followed by options and arguments for this type.
  47    Individual entries cannot be continued onto a following line. Empty lines
  48    are ignored, and a <literal>#</literal> character anywhere on a line marks
  49    the remainder of that line as a comment.
  50    </para>
  51  </refsect1>
  52
  53  <refsect1><title>sources.list.d</title>
  54    <para>The <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list.d</filename> directory provides
  55    a way to add sources.list entries in separate files.
  56    The format is the same as for the regular <filename>sources.list</filename> file.
  57    File names need to end with
  58    <filename>.list</filename> and may only contain letters (a-z and A-Z),
  59    digits (0-9), underscore (_), hyphen (-) and period (.) characters.
  60    Otherwise APT will print a notice that it has ignored a file, unless that
  61    file matches a pattern in the <literal>Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently</literal>
  62    configuration list - in which case it will be silently ignored.</para>
  63  </refsect1>
  64
  65  <refsect1><title>The deb and deb-src types</title>
  66    <para>The <literal>deb</literal> type references a typical two-level Debian
  67    archive, <filename>distribution/component</filename>. The
  68    <literal>distribution</literal> is generally an archive name like
  69    <literal>stable</literal> or <literal>testing</literal> or a codename like
  70    <literal>&stable-codename;</literal> or <literal>&testing-codename;</literal>
  71    while component is one of <literal>main</literal>, <literal>contrib</literal> or
  72    <literal>non-free</literal>. The
  73    <literal>deb-src</literal> type references a Debian distribution's source
  74    code in the same form as the <literal>deb</literal> type.
  75    A <literal>deb-src</literal> line is required to fetch source indexes.</para>
  76
  77
  78    <para>The format for a <filename>sources.list</filename> entry using the
  79    <literal>deb</literal> and <literal>deb-src</literal> types is:</para>
  80
  81    <literallayout>deb [ options ] uri distribution [component1] [component2] [...]</literallayout>
  82
  83    <para>The URI for the <literal>deb</literal> type must specify the base of the
  84    Debian distribution, from which APT will find the information it needs.
  85    <literal>distribution</literal> can specify an exact path, in which case the
  86    components must be omitted and <literal>distribution</literal> must end with
  87    a slash (<literal>/</literal>). This is useful for the case when only a
  88    particular sub-section of the archive denoted by the URI is of interest.
  89    If <literal>distribution</literal> does not specify an exact path, at least
  90    one <literal>component</literal> must be present.</para>
  91
  92    <para><literal>distribution</literal> may also contain a variable,
  93    <literal>$(ARCH)</literal>
  94    which expands to the Debian architecture (such as <literal>amd64</literal> or
  95    <literal>armel</literal>) used on the system. This permits architecture-independent
  96    <filename>sources.list</filename> files to be used. In general this is only
  97    of interest when specifying an exact path, <literal>APT</literal> will
  98    automatically generate a URI with the current architecture otherwise.</para>
  99
 100    <para>Since only one distribution can be specified per line it may be necessary
 101    to have multiple lines for the same URI, if a subset of all available
 102    distributions or components at that location is desired.
 103    APT will sort the URI list after it has generated a complete set
 104    internally, and will collapse multiple references to the same Internet
 105    host, for instance, into a single connection, so that it does not
 106    inefficiently establish an FTP connection, close it, do something else,
 107    and then re-establish a connection to that same host. This feature is
 108    useful for accessing busy FTP sites with limits on the number of
 109    simultaneous anonymous users. APT also parallelizes connections to
 110    different hosts to more effectively deal with sites with low bandwidth.</para>
 111
 112    <para><literal>options</literal> is always optional and needs to be surrounded by
 113    square brackets. It can consist of multiple settings in the form
 114    <literal><replaceable>setting</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></literal>.
 115    Multiple settings are separated by spaces. The following settings are supported by APT
 116    (note however that unsupported settings will be ignored silently):
 117    <itemizedlist>
 118    <listitem><para><literal>arch=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
 119    can be used to specify for which architectures information should
 120    be downloaded. If this option is not set all architectures defined by the
 121    <literal>APT::Architectures</literal> option will be downloaded.</para></listitem>
 122    <listitem><para><literal>arch+=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
 123    and <literal>arch-=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
 124    which can be used to add/remove architectures from the set which will be downloaded.</para></listitem>
 125    <listitem><para><literal>trusted=yes</literal> can be set to indicate that packages
 126    from this source are always authenticated even if the <filename>Release</filename> file
 127    is not signed or the signature can't be checked. This disables parts of &apt-secure;
 128    and should therefore only be used in a local and trusted context. <literal>trusted=no</literal>
 129    is the opposite which handles even correctly authenticated sources as not authenticated.</para></listitem>
 130    </itemizedlist></para>
 131
 132    <para>It is important to list sources in order of preference, with the most
 133    preferred source listed first. Typically this will result in sorting
 134    by speed from fastest to slowest (CD-ROM followed by hosts on a local
 135    network, followed by distant Internet hosts, for example).</para>
 136
 137    <para>Some examples:</para>
 138    <literallayout>
 139 deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main contrib non-free
 140 deb http://security.debian.org/ &stable-codename;/updates main contrib non-free
 141    </literallayout>
 142
 143  </refsect1>
 144
 145  <refsect1><title>URI specification</title>
 146
 147     <para>The currently recognized URI types are:
 148    <variablelist>
 149     <varlistentry><term><command>file</command></term>
 150     <listitem><para>
 151     The file scheme allows an arbitrary directory in the file system to be
 152     considered an archive. This is useful for NFS mounts and local mirrors or
 153     archives.</para></listitem>
 154     </varlistentry>
 155
 156     <varlistentry><term><command>cdrom</command></term>
 157     <listitem><para>
 158     The cdrom scheme allows APT to use a local CD-ROM drive with media
 159     swapping. Use the &apt-cdrom; program to create cdrom entries in the
 160     source list.</para></listitem>
 161     </varlistentry>
 162
 163     <varlistentry><term><command>http</command></term>
 164     <listitem><para>
 165     The http scheme specifies an HTTP server for the archive. If an environment
 166     variable <envar>http_proxy</envar> is set with the format
 167     http://server:port/, the proxy server specified in
 168     <envar>http_proxy</envar> will be used. Users of authenticated
 169     HTTP/1.1 proxies may use a string of the format
 170     http://user:pass@server:port/.
 171     Note that this is an insecure method of authentication.</para></listitem>
 172     </varlistentry>
 173
 174     <varlistentry><term><command>ftp</command></term>
 175     <listitem><para>
 176     The ftp scheme specifies an FTP server for the archive. APT's FTP behavior
 177     is highly configurable; for more information see the
 178     &apt-conf; manual page. Please note that an FTP proxy can be specified
 179     by using the <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> environment variable. It is possible
 180     to specify an HTTP proxy (HTTP proxy servers often understand FTP URLs)
 181     using this environment variable and <emphasis>only</emphasis> this
 182     environment variable. Proxies using HTTP specified in
 183     the configuration file will be ignored.</para></listitem>
 184     </varlistentry>
 185
 186     <varlistentry><term><command>copy</command></term>
 187     <listitem><para>
 188     The copy scheme is identical to the file scheme except that packages are
 189     copied into the cache directory instead of used directly at their location.
 190     This is useful for people using removable media to copy files around with APT.</para></listitem>
 191     </varlistentry>
 192
 193     <varlistentry><term><command>rsh</command></term><term><command>ssh</command></term>
 194     <listitem><para>
 195     The rsh/ssh method invokes RSH/SSH to connect to a remote host and
 196     access the files as a given user. Prior configuration of rhosts or RSA keys
 197     is recommended. The standard <command>find</command> and <command>dd</command>
 198     commands are used to perform the file transfers from the remote host.
 199     </para></listitem>
 200     </varlistentry>
 201
 202     <varlistentry><term>adding more recognizable URI types</term>
 203     <listitem><para>
 204     APT can be extended with more methods shipped in other optional packages, which should
 205     follow the naming scheme <package>apt-transport-<replaceable>method</replaceable></package>.
 206     For instance, the APT team also maintains the package <package>apt-transport-https</package>,
 207     which provides access methods for HTTPS URIs with features similar to the http method.
 208     Methods for using e.g. debtorrent are also available - see &apt-transport-debtorrent;.
 209     </para></listitem>
 210     </varlistentry>
 211   </variablelist>
 212  </para>
 213  </refsect1>
 214
 215  <refsect1><title>Examples</title>
 216    <para>Uses the archive stored locally (or NFS mounted) at /home/jason/debian
 217    for stable/main, stable/contrib, and stable/non-free.</para>
 218    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian stable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 219
 220    <para>As above, except this uses the unstable (development) distribution.</para>
 221    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 222
 223    <para>Source line for the above</para>
 224    <literallayout>deb-src file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 225
 226    <para>The first line gets package information for the architectures in <literal>APT::Architectures</literal>
 227    while the second always retrieves <literal>amd64</literal> and <literal>armel</literal>.</para>
 228    <literallayout>deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main
 229 deb [ arch=amd64,armel ] http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main</literallayout>
 230
 231    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at archive.debian.org, and uses only
 232    the hamm/main area.</para>
 233    <literallayout>deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive hamm main</literallayout>
 234
 235    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 236    directory, and uses only the &stable-codename;/contrib area.</para>
 237    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; contrib</literallayout>
 238
 239    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 240    directory, and uses only the unstable/contrib area. If this line appears as
 241    well as the one in the previous example in <filename>sources.list</filename>
 242    a single FTP session will be used for both resource lines.</para>
 243    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable contrib</literallayout>
 244
 245    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at ftp.tlh.debian.org, under the
 246    universe directory, and uses only files found under
 247    <filename>unstable/binary-i386</filename> on i386 machines,
 248    <filename>unstable/binary-amd64</filename> on amd64, and so
 249    forth for other supported architectures. [Note this example only
 250    illustrates how to use the substitution variable; official debian
 251    archives are not structured like this]
 252    <literallayout>deb http://ftp.tlh.debian.org/universe unstable/binary-$(ARCH)/</literallayout>
 253    </para>
 254  </refsect1>
 255
 256  <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
 257    <para>&apt-cache; &apt-conf;
 258    </para>
 259  </refsect1>
 260
 261  &manbugs;
 262
 263 </refentry>
 264