doc/sources.list.5.xml

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   2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
   3   "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" [
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   5 <!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent">
   6 %aptent;
   7
   8 ]>
   9
  10 <refentry>
  11  &apt-docinfo;
  12
  13  <refmeta>
  14    <refentrytitle>sources.list</refentrytitle>
  15    <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
  16  </refmeta>
  17
  18  <!-- Man page title -->
  19  <refnamediv>
  20     <refname>sources.list</refname>
  21     <refpurpose>Package resource list for APT</refpurpose>
  22  </refnamediv>
  23
  24  <refsect1><title>Description</title>
  25    <para>The package resource list is used to locate archives of the package
  26    distribution system in use on the system. At this time, this manual page
  27    documents only the packaging system used by the Debian GNU/Linux system.
  28    This control file is located in <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename></para>
  29
  30    <para>The source list is designed to support any number of active sources and a
  31    variety of source media. The file lists one source per line, with the
  32    most preferred source listed first. The format of each line is:
  33    <literal>type uri args</literal> The first item, <literal>type</literal>
  34    determines the format for <literal>args</literal> <literal>uri</literal> is
  35    a Universal Resource Identifier
  36    (URI), which is a superset of the more specific and well-known Universal
  37    Resource Locator, or URL. The rest of the line can be marked as a comment
  38    by using a #.</para>
  39  </refsect1>
  40
  41  <refsect1><title>The deb and deb-src types</title>
  42    <para>The <literal>deb</literal> type describes a typical two-level Debian
  43    archive, <filename>distribution/component</filename>. Typically,
  44    <literal>distribution</literal> is generally one of
  45    <literal>stable</literal> <literal>unstable</literal> or
  46    <literal>testing</literal> while component is one of <literal>main</literal>
  47    <literal>contrib</literal> <literal>non-free</literal> or
  48    <literal>non-us</literal> The
  49    <literal>deb-src</literal> type describes a debian distribution's source
  50    code in the same form as the <literal>deb</literal> type.
  51    A <literal>deb-src</literal> line is required to fetch source indexes.</para>
  52
  53
  54    <para>The format for a <filename>sources.list</filename> entry using the
  55    <literal>deb</literal> and <literal>deb-src</literal> types are:</para>
  56
  57    <literallayout>deb uri distribution [component1] [component2] [...]</literallayout>
  58
  59    <para>The URI for the <literal>deb</literal> type must specify the base of the
  60    Debian distribution, from which APT will find the information it needs.
  61    <literal>distribution</literal> can specify an exact path, in which case the
  62    components must be omitted and <literal>distribution</literal> must end with
  63    a slash (/). This is useful for when only a particular sub-section of the
  64    archive denoted by the URI is of interest.
  65    If <literal>distribution</literal> does not specify an exact path, at least
  66    one <literal>component</literal> must be present.</para>
  67
  68    <para><literal>distribution</literal> may also contain a variable,
  69    <literal>$(ARCH)</literal>
  70    which expands to the Debian architecture (i386, m68k, powerpc, ...)
  71    used on the system. This permits architecture-independent
  72    <filename>sources.list</filename> files to be used. In general this is only
  73    of interest when specifying an exact path, <literal>APT</literal> will
  74    automatically generate a URI with the current architecture otherwise.</para>
  75
  76    <para>Since only one distribution can be specified per line it may be necessary
  77    to have multiple lines for the same URI, if a subset of all available
  78    distributions or components at that location is desired.
  79    APT will sort the URI list after it has generated a complete set
  80    internally, and will collapse multiple references to the same Internet
  81    host, for instance, into a single connection, so that it does not
  82    inefficiently establish an FTP connection, close it, do something else,
  83    and then re-establish a connection to that same host. This feature is
  84    useful for accessing busy FTP sites with limits on the number of
  85    simultaneous anonymous users. APT also parallelizes connections to
  86    different hosts to more effectively deal with sites with low bandwidth.</para>
  87
  88    <para>It is important to list sources in order of preference, with the most
  89    preferred source listed first. Typically this will result in sorting
  90    by speed from fastest to slowest (CD-ROM followed by hosts on a local
  91    network, followed by distant Internet hosts, for example).</para>
  92
  93    <para>Some examples:</para>
  94    <literallayout>
  95 deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
  96 deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian dists/stable-updates/
  97    </literallayout>
  98
  99  </refsect1>
 100
 101  <refsect1><title>URI specification</title>
 102
 103    <para>The currently recognized URI types are cdrom, file, http, and ftp.
 104    <variablelist>
 105     <varlistentry><term>file</term>
 106     <listitem><para>
 107     The file scheme allows an arbitrary directory in the file system to be
 108     considered an archive. This is useful for NFS mounts and local mirrors or
 109     archives.</para></listitem>
 110     </varlistentry>
 111
 112     <varlistentry><term>cdrom</term>
 113     <listitem><para>
 114     The cdrom scheme allows APT to use a local CDROM drive with media
 115     swapping. Use the &apt-cdrom; program to create cdrom entries in the
 116     source list.</para></listitem>
 117     </varlistentry>
 118
 119     <varlistentry><term>http</term>
 120     <listitem><para>
 121     The http scheme specifies an HTTP server for the archive. If an environment
 122     variable <envar>http_proxy</envar> is set with the format
 123     http://server:port/, the proxy server specified in
 124     <envar>http_proxy</envar> will be used. Users of authenticated
 125     HTTP/1.1 proxies may use a string of the format
 126     http://user:pass@server:port/
 127     Note that this is an insecure method of authentication.</para></listitem>
 128     </varlistentry>
 129
 130     <varlistentry><term>ftp</term>
 131     <listitem><para>
 132     The ftp scheme specifies an FTP server for the archive. APT's FTP behavior
 133     is highly configurable; for more information see the
 134     &apt-conf; manual page. Please note that a ftp proxy can be specified
 135     by using the <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> environment variable. It is possible
 136     to specify a http proxy (http proxy servers often understand ftp urls)
 137     using this method and ONLY this method. ftp proxies using http specified in
 138     the configuration file will be ignored.</para></listitem>
 139     </varlistentry>
 140
 141     <varlistentry><term>copy</term>
 142     <listitem><para>
 143     The copy scheme is identical to the file scheme except that packages are
 144     copied into the cache directory instead of used directly at their location.
 145     This is useful for people using a zip disk to copy files around with APT.</para></listitem>
 146     </varlistentry>
 147
 148     <varlistentry><term>rsh</term><term>ssh</term>
 149     <listitem><para>
 150     The rsh/ssh method invokes rsh/ssh to connect to a remote host
 151     as a given user and access the files. No password authentication is
 152     possible, prior arrangements with RSA keys or rhosts must have been made.
 153     Access to files on the remote uses standard <command>find</command> and
 154     <command>dd</command>
 155     commands to perform the file transfers from the remote.</para></listitem>
 156     </varlistentry>
 157   </variablelist>
 158  </para>
 159  </refsect1>
 160
 161  <refsect1><title>Examples</title>
 162    <para>Uses the archive stored locally (or NFS mounted) at /home/jason/debian
 163    for stable/main, stable/contrib, and stable/non-free.</para>
 164    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian stable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 165
 166    <para>As above, except this uses the unstable (development) distribution.</para>
 167    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 168
 169    <para>Source line for the above</para>
 170    <literallayout>deb-src file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 171
 172    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at archive.debian.org, and uses only
 173    the hamm/main area.</para>
 174    <literallayout>deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive hamm main</literallayout>
 175
 176    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 177    directory, and uses only the stable/contrib area.</para>
 178    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian stable contrib</literallayout>
 179
 180    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 181    directory, and uses only the unstable/contrib area. If this line appears as
 182    well as the one in the previous example in <filename>sources.list</filename>.
 183    a single FTP session will be used for both resource lines.</para>
 184    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable contrib</literallayout>
 185
 186    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at nonus.debian.org, under the
 187     debian-non-US directory.</para>
 188    <literallayout>deb http://nonus.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 189
 190    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at nonus.debian.org, under the
 191    debian-non-US directory, and uses only files found under
 192    <filename>unstable/binary-i3866</filename> on i386 machines,
 193    <filename>unstable/binary-m68k</filename> on m68k, and so
 194    forth for other supported architectures. [Note this example only
 195    illustrates how to use the substitution variable; non-us is no longer
 196    structured like this]
 197    <literallayout>deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/binary-$(ARCH)/</literallayout>
 198    </para>
 199  </refsect1>
 200
 201  <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
 202    <para>
 203    &apt-cache; &apt-conf;
 204    </para>
 205  </refsect1>
 206
 207  &manbugs;
 208  &manauthor;
 209
 210 </refentry>
 211