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 <!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent"> %aptent;
   5 <!ENTITY % aptverbatiment SYSTEM "apt-verbatim.ent"> %aptverbatiment;
   6 <!ENTITY % aptvendor SYSTEM "apt-vendor.ent"> %aptvendor;
   7 ]>
   8
   9 <refentry>
  10
  11  <refentryinfo>
  12    &apt-author.jgunthorpe;
  13    &apt-author.team;
  14    &apt-email;
  15    &apt-product;
  16    <!-- The last update date -->
  17    <date>2014-01-18T00:00:00Z</date>
  18  </refentryinfo>
  19
  20  <refmeta>
  21    <refentrytitle>sources.list</refentrytitle>
  22    <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
  23    <refmiscinfo class="manual">APT</refmiscinfo>
  24  </refmeta>
  25
  26  <!-- Man page title -->
  27  <refnamediv>
  28     <refname>sources.list</refname>
  29     <refpurpose>List of configured APT data sources</refpurpose>
  30  </refnamediv>
  31
  32  <refsect1><title>Description</title>
  33    <para>
  34       The source list <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename> and the
  35       files contained in <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list.d/</filename> are
  36       designed to support any number of active sources and a variety of source
  37       media. The files list one source per line (one-line style) or contain multiline
  38       stanzas defining one or more sources per stanza (deb822 style), with the
  39       most preferred source listed first (in case a single version is
  40       available from more than one source). The information available from the
  41       configured sources is acquired by <command>apt-get update</command> (or
  42       by an equivalent command from another APT front-end).
  43    </para>
  44  </refsect1>
  45
  46  <refsect1><title>sources.list.d</title>
  47     <para>The <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list.d</filename> directory provides
  48        a way to add sources.list entries in separate files.
  49        Two different file formats are allowed as described in the next two sections.
  50        Filenames need to have either the extension <filename>.list</filename> or
  51        <filename>.sources</filename> depending on the contained format.
  52        The filenames may only contain letters (a-z and A-Z),
  53        digits (0-9), underscore (_), hyphen (-) and period (.) characters.
  54        Otherwise APT will print a notice that it has ignored a file, unless that
  55        file matches a pattern in the <literal>Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently</literal>
  56        configuration list - in which case it will be silently ignored.</para>
  57  </refsect1>
  58
  59  <refsect1><title>One-Line-Style Format</title>
  60     <para>
  61        Files in this format have the extension <filename>.list</filename>.
  62        Each line specifying a source starts with a type (e.g. <literal>deb-src</literal>)
  63        followed by options and arguments for this type.
  64
  65        Individual entries cannot be continued onto a following line. Empty lines
  66        are ignored, and a <literal>#</literal> character anywhere on a line marks
  67        the remainder of that line as a comment. Consequently an entry can be
  68        disabled by commenting out the entire line.
  69
  70        If options should be provided they are separated by spaces and all of
  71        them together are enclosed by square brackets (<literal>[]</literal>)
  72        included in the line after the type separated from it with a space.
  73        If an option allows multiple values these are separated from each other
  74        with a comma (<literal>,</literal>). An option name is separated from its
  75        value(s) by an equals sign (<literal>=</literal>). Multivalue options also
  76        have <literal>-=</literal> and <literal>+=</literal> as separators, which
  77        instead of replacing the default with the given value(s) modify the default
  78        value(s) to remove or include the given values.
  79    </para><para>
  80        This is the traditional format and supported by all apt versions.
  81        Note that not all options as described below are supported by all apt versions.
  82        Note also that some older applications parsing this format on their own might not
  83        expect to encounter options as they were uncommon before the introduction of
  84        multi-architecture support.
  85     </para>
  86  </refsect1>
  87
  88  <refsect1><title>deb822-Style Format</title>
  89     <para>
  90        Files in this format have the extension <filename>.sources</filename>.
  91        The format is similar in syntax to other files used by Debian and its
  92        derivatives, such as the metadata files that apt will download from the configured
  93        sources or the <filename>debian/control</filename> file in a Debian source package.
  94
  95        Individual entries are separated by an empty line; additional empty
  96        lines are ignored, and a <literal>#</literal> character at the start of
  97        the line marks the entire line as a comment. An entry can hence be
  98        disabled by commenting out each line belonging to the stanza, but it is
  99        usually easier to add the field "Enabled: no" to the stanza to disable
 100        the entry. Removing the field or setting it to yes reenables it.
 101
 102        Options have the same syntax as every other field: A fieldname separated by
 103        a colon (<literal>:</literal>) and optionally spaces from its value(s).
 104        Note especially that multiple values are separated by spaces, not by
 105        commas as in the one-line format. Multivalue fields like <literal>Architectures</literal>
 106        also have <literal>Architectures-Add</literal> and <literal>Architectures-Remove</literal>
 107        to modify the default value rather than replacing it.
 108    </para><para>
 109        This is a new format supported by apt itself since version 1.1. Previous
 110        versions ignore such files with a notice message as described earlier.
 111        It is intended to make this format gradually the default format,
 112        deprecating the previously described one-line-style format, as it is
 113        easier to create, extend and modify for humans and machines alike
 114        especially if a lot of sources and/or options are involved.
 115
 116        Developers who are working with and/or parsing apt sources are highly
 117        encouraged to add support for this format and to contact the APT team
 118        to coordinate and share this work. Users can freely adopt this format
 119        already, but may encounter problems with software not supporting
 120        the format yet.
 121     </para>
 122  </refsect1>
 123
 124  <refsect1><title>The deb and deb-src Types: General Format</title>
 125    <para>The <literal>deb</literal> type references a typical two-level Debian
 126    archive, <filename>distribution/component</filename>. The
 127    <literal>distribution</literal> is generally a suite name like
 128    <literal>stable</literal> or <literal>testing</literal> or a codename like
 129    <literal>&stable-codename;</literal> or <literal>&testing-codename;</literal>
 130    while component is one of <literal>main</literal>, <literal>contrib</literal> or
 131    <literal>non-free</literal>. The
 132    <literal>deb-src</literal> type references a Debian distribution's source
 133    code in the same form as the <literal>deb</literal> type.
 134    A <literal>deb-src</literal> line is required to fetch source indexes.</para>
 135
 136    <para>The format for two one-line-style entries using the
 137    <literal>deb</literal> and <literal>deb-src</literal> types is:</para>
 138
 139    <literallayout>deb [ option1=value1 option2=value2 ] uri suite [component1] [component2] [...]
 140 deb-src [ option1=value1 option2=value2 ] uri suite [component1] [component2] [...]</literallayout>
 141
 142    <para>Alternatively the equivalent entry in deb822 style looks like this:
 143    <literallayout>
 144      Types: deb deb-src
 145      URIs: uri
 146      Suites: suite
 147      Components: [component1] [component2] [...]
 148      option1: value1
 149      option2: value2
 150    </literallayout>
 151    </para>
 152
 153    <para>The URI for the <literal>deb</literal> type must specify the base of the
 154    Debian distribution, from which APT will find the information it needs.
 155    <literal>suite</literal> can specify an exact path, in which case the
 156    components must be omitted and <literal>suite</literal> must end with
 157    a slash (<literal>/</literal>). This is useful for the case when only a
 158    particular sub-directory of the archive denoted by the URI is of interest.
 159    If <literal>suite</literal> does not specify an exact path, at least
 160    one <literal>component</literal> must be present.</para>
 161
 162    <para><literal>suite</literal> may also contain a variable,
 163    <literal>$(ARCH)</literal>
 164    which expands to the Debian architecture (such as <literal>amd64</literal> or
 165    <literal>armel</literal>) used on the system. This permits architecture-independent
 166    <filename>sources.list</filename> files to be used. In general this is only
 167    of interest when specifying an exact path; <literal>APT</literal> will
 168    automatically generate a URI with the current architecture otherwise.</para>
 169
 170    <para>Especially in the one-line-style format since only one distribution
 171       can be specified per line it may be necessary to have multiple lines for
 172       the same URI, if a subset of all available distributions or components at
 173       that location is desired.  APT will sort the URI list after it has
 174       generated a complete set internally, and will collapse multiple
 175       references to the same Internet host, for instance, into a single
 176       connection, so that it does not inefficiently establish a
 177       connection, close it, do something else, and then re-establish a
 178       connection to that same host. APT also parallelizes connections to
 179       different hosts to more effectively deal with sites with low
 180       bandwidth.</para>
 181
 182    <para>It is important to list sources in order of preference, with the most
 183    preferred source listed first. Typically this will result in sorting
 184    by speed from fastest to slowest (CD-ROM followed by hosts on a local
 185    network, followed by distant Internet hosts, for example).</para>
 186
 187    <para>As an example, the sources for your distribution could look like this
 188       in one-line-style format:
 189       <literallayout>&sourceslist-list-format;</literallayout> or like this in
 190       deb822 style format:
 191       <literallayout>&sourceslist-sources-format;</literallayout></para>
 192  </refsect1>
 193
 194  <refsect1><title>The deb and deb-src types: Options</title>
 195     <para>Each source entry can have options specified to modify which source
 196        is accessed and how data is acquired from it. Format, syntax and names
 197        of the options vary between the one-line-style and deb822-style formats
 198        as described, but they both have the same options available. For simplicity
 199        we list the deb822 fieldname and provide the one-line name in brackets.
 200        Remember that besides setting multivalue options explicitly, there is also
 201        the option to modify them based on the default, but we aren't listing those
 202        names explicitly here. Unsupported options are silently ignored by all
 203        APT versions.
 204
 205        <itemizedlist>
 206           <listitem><para><option>Architectures</option>
 207                 (<option>arch</option>) is a multivalue option defining for
 208                 which architectures information should be downloaded. If this
 209                 option isn't set the default is all architectures as defined by
 210                 the <option>APT::Architectures</option> config option.
 211           </para></listitem>
 212
 213           <listitem><para><option>Languages</option>
 214                 (<option>lang</option>) is a multivalue option defining for
 215                 which languages information such as translated package
 216                 descriptions should be downloaded.  If this option isn't set
 217                 the default is all languages as defined by the
 218                 <option>Acquire::Languages</option> config option.
 219           </para></listitem>
 220
 221           <listitem><para><option>Targets</option>
 222                 (<option>target</option>) is a multivalue option defining
 223                 which download targets apt will try to acquire from this
 224                 source. If not specified, the default set is defined by the
 225                 <option>Acquire::IndexTargets</option> configuration scope.
 226                 Additionally, specific targets can be enabled or disabled by
 227                 using the identifier as field name instead of using this
 228                 multivalue option.
 229           </para></listitem>
 230
 231           <listitem><para><option>PDiffs</option> (<option>pdiffs</option>)
 232                 is a yes/no value which controls if APT should try to use PDiffs
 233                 to update old indexes instead of downloading the new indexes
 234                 entirely. The value of this option is ignored if the repository
 235                 doesn't announce the availability of PDiffs.  Defaults to the
 236                 value of the option with the same name for a specific index file
 237                 defined in the <option>Acquire::IndexTargets</option> scope,
 238                 which itself defaults to the value of configuration option
 239                 <option>Acquire::PDiffs</option> which defaults to
 240                 <literal>yes</literal>.
 241           </para></listitem>
 242
 243           <listitem><para><option>By-Hash</option> (<option>by-hash</option>)
 244                 can have the value <literal>yes</literal>, <literal>no</literal>
 245                 or <literal>force</literal> and controls if APT should try to
 246                 acquire indexes via a URI constructed from a hashsum of the
 247                 expected file instead of using the well-known stable filename
 248                 of the index. Using this can avoid hashsum mismatches, but
 249                 requires a supporting mirror. A <literal>yes</literal> or
 250                 <literal>no</literal> value activates/disables the use of this
 251                 feature if this source indicates support for it, while
 252                 <literal>force</literal> will enable the feature regardless of
 253                 what the source indicates. Defaults to the value of the option
 254                 of the same name for a specific index file defined in the
 255                 <option>Acquire::IndexTargets</option> scope, which itself
 256                 defaults to the value of configuration option
 257                 <option>Acquire::By-Hash</option> which defaults to
 258                 <literal>yes</literal>.
 259           </para></listitem>
 260
 261        </itemizedlist>
 262
 263        Furthermore, there are options which if set affect
 264        <emphasis>all</emphasis> sources with the same URI and Suite, so they
 265        have to be set on all such entries and can not be varied between
 266        different components. APT will try to detect and error out on such
 267        anomalies.
 268
 269        <itemizedlist>
 270           <listitem><para><option>Trusted</option> (<option>trusted</option>)
 271                 is a tri-state value which defaults to APT deciding if a source
 272                 is considered trusted or if warnings should be raised before e.g.
 273                 packages are installed from this source. This option can be used
 274                 to override this decision either with the value <literal>yes</literal>,
 275                 which lets APT consider this source always as a trusted source,
 276                 even if it lacks or fails authentication checks, by disabling parts
 277                 of &apt-secure;. It should therefore only be used in a local and trusted
 278                 context (if at all) as otherwise security is breached. The opposite
 279                 can be achieved with the value <literal>no</literal>, which
 280                 causes the source to be handled as untrusted even if the
 281                 authentication checks passed successfully.
 282                 The default value can't be set explicitly.
 283           </para></listitem>
 284
 285           <listitem><para><option>Signed-By</option> (<option>signed-by</option>)
 286                 is either an absolute path to a keyring file (has to be
 287                 accessible and readable for the <literal>_apt</literal> user,
 288                 so ensure everyone has read-permissions on the file) or a
 289                 fingerprint of a key either in the
 290                 <filename>trusted.gpg</filename> keyring or in one of the
 291                 keyrings in the <filename>trusted.gpg.d/</filename> directory
 292                 (see <command>apt-key fingerprint</command>). If the option is
 293                 set, only the key(s) in this keyring or only the key with this
 294                 fingerprint is used for the &apt-secure; verification of this
 295                 repository. Otherwise all keys in the trusted keyrings are
 296                 considered valid signers for this repository.
 297           </para></listitem>
 298
 299           <listitem><para><option>Check-Valid-Until</option> (<option>check-valid-until</option>)
 300                 is a yes/no value which controls if APT should try to detect
 301                 replay attacks. A repository creator can declare a time until
 302                 which the data provided in the repository should be considered valid,
 303                 and if this time is reached, but no new data is provided, the data
 304                 is considered expired and an error is raised.  Besides
 305                 increasing security, as a malicious attacker can't send old data
 306                 forever to prevent a user from upgrading to a new version,
 307                 this also helps users identify mirrors which are no longer
 308                 updated. However, some repositories such as historic archives
 309                 are not updated any more by design, so this check can be
 310                 disabled by setting this option to <literal>no</literal>.
 311                 Defaults to the value of configuration option
 312                 <option>Acquire::Check-Valid-Until</option> which itself
 313                 defaults to <literal>yes</literal>.
 314           </para></listitem>
 315
 316           <listitem><para><option>Valid-Until-Min</option>
 317                 (<option>valid-until-min</option>) and
 318                 <option>Valid-Until-Max</option>
 319                 (<option>valid-until-max</option>) can be used to raise or
 320                 lower the time period in seconds in which the data from this
 321                 repository is considered valid. -Max can be especially useful
 322                 if the repository provides no Valid-Until field on its Release
 323                 file to set your own value, while -Min can be used to increase
 324                 the valid time on seldom updated (local) mirrors of a more
 325                 frequently updated but less accessible archive (which is in the
 326                 sources.list as well) instead of disabling the check entirely.
 327                 Default to the value of the configuration options
 328                 <option>Acquire::Min-ValidTime</option> and
 329                 <option>Acquire::Max-ValidTime</option> which are both unset by
 330                 default.
 331           </para></listitem>
 332
 333        </itemizedlist>
 334
 335     </para>
 336  </refsect1>
 337
 338  <refsect1><title>URI Specification</title>
 339
 340     <para>The currently recognized URI types are:
 341    <variablelist>
 342     <varlistentry><term><command>file</command></term>
 343     <listitem><para>
 344     The file scheme allows an arbitrary directory in the file system to be
 345     considered an archive. This is useful for NFS mounts and local mirrors or
 346     archives.</para></listitem>
 347     </varlistentry>
 348
 349     <varlistentry><term><command>cdrom</command></term>
 350     <listitem><para>
 351     The cdrom scheme allows APT to use a local CD-ROM drive with media
 352     swapping. Use the &apt-cdrom; program to create cdrom entries in the
 353     source list.</para></listitem>
 354     </varlistentry>
 355
 356     <varlistentry><term><command>http</command></term>
 357     <listitem><para>
 358     The http scheme specifies an HTTP server for the archive. If an environment
 359     variable <envar>http_proxy</envar> is set with the format
 360     http://server:port/, the proxy server specified in
 361     <envar>http_proxy</envar> will be used. Users of authenticated
 362     HTTP/1.1 proxies may use a string of the format
 363     http://user:pass@server:port/.
 364     Note that this is an insecure method of authentication.</para></listitem>
 365     </varlistentry>
 366
 367     <varlistentry><term><command>ftp</command></term>
 368     <listitem><para>
 369     The ftp scheme specifies an FTP server for the archive. APT's FTP behavior
 370     is highly configurable; for more information see the
 371     &apt-conf; manual page. Please note that an FTP proxy can be specified
 372     by using the <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> environment variable. It is possible
 373     to specify an HTTP proxy (HTTP proxy servers often understand FTP URLs)
 374     using this environment variable and <emphasis>only</emphasis> this
 375     environment variable. Proxies using HTTP specified in
 376     the configuration file will be ignored.</para></listitem>
 377     </varlistentry>
 378
 379     <varlistentry><term><command>copy</command></term>
 380     <listitem><para>
 381     The copy scheme is identical to the file scheme except that packages are
 382     copied into the cache directory instead of used directly at their location.
 383     This is useful for people using removable media to copy files around with APT.</para></listitem>
 384     </varlistentry>
 385
 386     <varlistentry><term><command>rsh</command></term><term><command>ssh</command></term>
 387     <listitem><para>
 388     The rsh/ssh method invokes RSH/SSH to connect to a remote host and
 389     access the files as a given user. Prior configuration of rhosts or RSA keys
 390     is recommended. The standard <command>find</command> and <command>dd</command>
 391     commands are used to perform the file transfers from the remote host.
 392     </para></listitem>
 393     </varlistentry>
 394
 395     <varlistentry><term>adding more recognizable URI types</term>
 396     <listitem><para>
 397     APT can be extended with more methods shipped in other optional packages, which should
 398     follow the naming scheme <package>apt-transport-<replaceable>method</replaceable></package>.
 399     For instance, the APT team also maintains the package <package>apt-transport-https</package>,
 400     which provides access methods for HTTPS URIs with features similar to the http method.
 401     Methods for using e.g. debtorrent are also available - see &apt-transport-debtorrent;.
 402     </para></listitem>
 403     </varlistentry>
 404   </variablelist>
 405  </para>
 406  </refsect1>
 407
 408  <refsect1><title>Examples</title>
 409    <para>Uses the archive stored locally (or NFS mounted) at /home/apt/debian
 410    for stable/main, stable/contrib, and stable/non-free.</para>
 411    <literallayout>deb file:/home/apt/debian stable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 412    <literallayout>Types: deb
 413 URIs: file:/home/apt/debian
 414 Suites: stable
 415 Components: main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 416
 417    <para>As above, except this uses the unstable (development) distribution.</para>
 418    <literallayout>deb file:/home/apt/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 419    <literallayout>Types: deb
 420 URIs: file:/home/apt/debian
 421 Suites: unstable
 422 Components: main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 423
 424    <para>Sources specification for the above.</para>
 425    <literallayout>deb-src file:/home/apt/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 426    <literallayout>Types: deb-src
 427 URIs: file:/home/apt/debian
 428 Suites: unstable
 429 Components: main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 430
 431    <para>The first line gets package information for the architectures in <literal>APT::Architectures</literal>
 432    while the second always retrieves <literal>amd64</literal> and <literal>armel</literal>.</para>
 433    <literallayout>deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main
 434 deb [ arch=amd64,armel ] http://httpredir.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main</literallayout>
 435    <literallayout>Types: deb
 436 URIs: http://httpredir.debian.org/debian
 437 Suites: &stable-codename;
 438 Components: main
 439
 440 Types: deb
 441 URIs: http://httpredir.debian.org/debian
 442 Suites: &stable-codename;
 443 Components: main
 444 Architectures: amd64 armel
 445 </literallayout>
 446
 447    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at archive.debian.org, and uses only
 448    the hamm/main area.</para>
 449    <literallayout>deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive hamm main</literallayout>
 450    <literallayout>Types: deb
 451 URIs: http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive
 452 Suites: hamm
 453 Components: main</literallayout>
 454
 455    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 456    directory, and uses only the &stable-codename;/contrib area.</para>
 457    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; contrib</literallayout>
 458    <literallayout>Types: deb
 459 URIs: ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian
 460 Suites: &stable-codename;
 461 Components: contrib</literallayout>
 462
 463    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 464    directory, and uses only the unstable/contrib area. If this line appears as
 465    well as the one in the previous example in <filename>sources.list</filename>
 466    a single FTP session will be used for both resource lines.</para>
 467    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable contrib</literallayout>
 468    <literallayout>Types: deb
 469 URIs: ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian
 470 Suites: unstable
 471 Components: contrib</literallayout>
 472
 473    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at ftp.tlh.debian.org, under the
 474    universe directory, and uses only files found under
 475    <filename>unstable/binary-i386</filename> on i386 machines,
 476    <filename>unstable/binary-amd64</filename> on amd64, and so
 477    forth for other supported architectures. [Note this example only
 478    illustrates how to use the substitution variable; official debian
 479    archives are not structured like this]
 480    <literallayout>deb http://ftp.tlh.debian.org/universe unstable/binary-$(ARCH)/</literallayout>
 481    <literallayout>Types: deb
 482 URIs: http://ftp.tlh.debian.org/universe
 483 Suites: unstable/binary-$(ARCH)/</literallayout>
 484    </para>
 485
 486    <para>Uses HTTP to get binary packages as well as sources from the stable, testing and unstable
 487       suites and the components main and contrib.</para>
 488    <literallayout>deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian stable main contrib
 489 deb-src http://httpredir.debian.org/debian stable main contrib
 490 deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian testing main contrib
 491 deb-src http://httpredir.debian.org/debian testing main contrib
 492 deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib
 493 deb-src http://httpredir.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib</literallayout>
 494    <literallayout>Types: deb deb-src
 495 URIs: http://httpredir.debian.org/debian
 496 Suites: stable testing unstable
 497 Components: main contrib
 498 </literallayout>
 499
 500  </refsect1>
 501
 502  <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
 503    <para>&apt-get;, &apt-conf;
 504    </para>
 505  </refsect1>
 506
 507  &manbugs;
 508
 509 </refentry>