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 suite [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      Suite: stable
  89      Section: component1 component2
  90      [option1]: [option1-value]
  91
  92      Type: deb-src
  93      Uri: http://example.com
  94      Suite: 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>suite</literal> can specify an exact path, in which case the
 103    components must be omitted and <literal>suite</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>suite</literal> does not specify an exact path, at least
 107    one <literal>component</literal> must be present.</para>
 108
 109    <para><literal>suite</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>In the traditional style sources.list format since only one
 118    distribution can be specified per line it may be necessary to have
 119    multiple lines for the same URI, if a subset of all available
 120    distributions or components at that location is desired.  APT will
 121    sort the URI list after it has generated a complete set internally,
 122    and will collapse multiple references to the same Internet host,
 123    for instance, into a single connection, so that it does not
 124    inefficiently establish an FTP connection, close it, do something
 125    else, and then re-establish a connection to that same host. This
 126    feature is useful for accessing busy FTP sites with limits on the
 127    number of simultaneous anonymous users. APT also parallelizes
 128    connections to different hosts to more effectively deal with sites
 129    with low bandwidth.</para>
 130
 131    <para><literal>options</literal> is always optional and needs to be surrounded by
 132    square brackets. It can consist of multiple settings in the form
 133    <literal><replaceable>setting</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></literal>.
 134    Multiple settings are separated by spaces. The following settings are supported by APT
 135    (note however that unsupported settings will be ignored silently):
 136    <itemizedlist>
 137    <listitem><para><literal>arch=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
 138    can be used to specify for which architectures information should
 139    be downloaded. If this option is not set all architectures defined by the
 140    <literal>APT::Architectures</literal> option will be downloaded.</para></listitem>
 141    <listitem><para><literal>arch+=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
 142    and <literal>arch-=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
 143    which can be used to add/remove architectures from the set which will be downloaded.</para></listitem>
 144    <listitem><para><literal>trusted=yes</literal> can be set to indicate that packages
 145    from this source are always authenticated even if the <filename>Release</filename> file
 146    is not signed or the signature can't be checked. This disables parts of &apt-secure;
 147    and should therefore only be used in a local and trusted context. <literal>trusted=no</literal>
 148    is the opposite which handles even correctly authenticated sources as not authenticated.</para></listitem>
 149    </itemizedlist></para>
 150
 151    <para>It is important to list sources in order of preference, with the most
 152    preferred source listed first. Typically this will result in sorting
 153    by speed from fastest to slowest (CD-ROM followed by hosts on a local
 154    network, followed by distant Internet hosts, for example).</para>
 155
 156    <para>Some examples:</para>
 157    <literallayout>
 158 deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main contrib non-free
 159 deb http://security.debian.org/ &stable-codename;/updates main contrib non-free
 160    </literallayout>
 161
 162  </refsect1>
 163
 164  <refsect1><title>URI specification</title>
 165
 166     <para>The currently recognized URI types are:
 167    <variablelist>
 168     <varlistentry><term><command>file</command></term>
 169     <listitem><para>
 170     The file scheme allows an arbitrary directory in the file system to be
 171     considered an archive. This is useful for NFS mounts and local mirrors or
 172     archives.</para></listitem>
 173     </varlistentry>
 174
 175     <varlistentry><term><command>cdrom</command></term>
 176     <listitem><para>
 177     The cdrom scheme allows APT to use a local CD-ROM drive with media
 178     swapping. Use the &apt-cdrom; program to create cdrom entries in the
 179     source list.</para></listitem>
 180     </varlistentry>
 181
 182     <varlistentry><term><command>http</command></term>
 183     <listitem><para>
 184     The http scheme specifies an HTTP server for the archive. If an environment
 185     variable <envar>http_proxy</envar> is set with the format
 186     http://server:port/, the proxy server specified in
 187     <envar>http_proxy</envar> will be used. Users of authenticated
 188     HTTP/1.1 proxies may use a string of the format
 189     http://user:pass@server:port/.
 190     Note that this is an insecure method of authentication.</para></listitem>
 191     </varlistentry>
 192
 193     <varlistentry><term><command>ftp</command></term>
 194     <listitem><para>
 195     The ftp scheme specifies an FTP server for the archive. APT's FTP behavior
 196     is highly configurable; for more information see the
 197     &apt-conf; manual page. Please note that an FTP proxy can be specified
 198     by using the <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> environment variable. It is possible
 199     to specify an HTTP proxy (HTTP proxy servers often understand FTP URLs)
 200     using this environment variable and <emphasis>only</emphasis> this
 201     environment variable. Proxies using HTTP specified in
 202     the configuration file will be ignored.</para></listitem>
 203     </varlistentry>
 204
 205     <varlistentry><term><command>copy</command></term>
 206     <listitem><para>
 207     The copy scheme is identical to the file scheme except that packages are
 208     copied into the cache directory instead of used directly at their location.
 209     This is useful for people using removable media to copy files around with APT.</para></listitem>
 210     </varlistentry>
 211
 212     <varlistentry><term><command>rsh</command></term><term><command>ssh</command></term>
 213     <listitem><para>
 214     The rsh/ssh method invokes RSH/SSH to connect to a remote host and
 215     access the files as a given user. Prior configuration of rhosts or RSA keys
 216     is recommended. The standard <command>find</command> and <command>dd</command>
 217     commands are used to perform the file transfers from the remote host.
 218     </para></listitem>
 219     </varlistentry>
 220
 221     <varlistentry><term>adding more recognizable URI types</term>
 222     <listitem><para>
 223     APT can be extended with more methods shipped in other optional packages, which should
 224     follow the naming scheme <package>apt-transport-<replaceable>method</replaceable></package>.
 225     For instance, the APT team also maintains the package <package>apt-transport-https</package>,
 226     which provides access methods for HTTPS URIs with features similar to the http method.
 227     Methods for using e.g. debtorrent are also available - see &apt-transport-debtorrent;.
 228     </para></listitem>
 229     </varlistentry>
 230   </variablelist>
 231  </para>
 232  </refsect1>
 233
 234  <refsect1><title>Examples</title>
 235    <para>Uses the archive stored locally (or NFS mounted) at /home/jason/debian
 236    for stable/main, stable/contrib, and stable/non-free.</para>
 237    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian stable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 238
 239    <para>As above, except this uses the unstable (development) distribution.</para>
 240    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 241
 242    <para>Source line for the above</para>
 243    <literallayout>deb-src file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 244
 245    <para>The first line gets package information for the architectures in <literal>APT::Architectures</literal>
 246    while the second always retrieves <literal>amd64</literal> and <literal>armel</literal>.</para>
 247    <literallayout>deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main
 248 deb [ arch=amd64,armel ] http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main</literallayout>
 249
 250    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at archive.debian.org, and uses only
 251    the hamm/main area.</para>
 252    <literallayout>deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive hamm main</literallayout>
 253
 254    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 255    directory, and uses only the &stable-codename;/contrib area.</para>
 256    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; contrib</literallayout>
 257
 258    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 259    directory, and uses only the unstable/contrib area. If this line appears as
 260    well as the one in the previous example in <filename>sources.list</filename>
 261    a single FTP session will be used for both resource lines.</para>
 262    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable contrib</literallayout>
 263
 264    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at ftp.tlh.debian.org, under the
 265    universe directory, and uses only files found under
 266    <filename>unstable/binary-i386</filename> on i386 machines,
 267    <filename>unstable/binary-amd64</filename> on amd64, and so
 268    forth for other supported architectures. [Note this example only
 269    illustrates how to use the substitution variable; official debian
 270    archives are not structured like this]
 271    <literallayout>deb http://ftp.tlh.debian.org/universe unstable/binary-$(ARCH)/</literallayout>
 272    </para>
 273  </refsect1>
 274
 275  <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
 276    <para>&apt-cache; &apt-conf;
 277    </para>
 278  </refsect1>
 279
 280  &manbugs;
 281
 282 </refentry>
 283