doc/sources.list.5.xml

   1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
   2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
   3   "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" [
   4
   5 <!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent">
   6 %aptent;
   7
   8 ]>
   9
  10 <refentry>
  11
  12  <refentryinfo>
  13    &apt-author.jgunthorpe;
  14    &apt-author.team;
  15    &apt-email;
  16    &apt-product;
  17    <!-- The last update date -->
  18    <date>29 February 2004</date>
  19  </refentryinfo>
  20
  21  <refmeta>
  22    <refentrytitle>sources.list</refentrytitle>
  23    <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
  24  </refmeta>
  25
  26  <!-- Man page title -->
  27  <refnamediv>
  28     <refname>sources.list</refname>
  29     <refpurpose>Package resource list for APT</refpurpose>
  30  </refnamediv>
  31
  32  <refsect1><title>Description</title>
  33    <para>The package resource list is used to locate archives of the package
  34    distribution system in use on the system. At this time, this manual page
  35    documents only the packaging system used by the Debian GNU/Linux system.
  36    This control file is located in <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename></para>
  37
  38    <para>The source list is designed to support any number of active sources and a
  39    variety of source media. The file lists one source per line, with the
  40    most preferred source listed first. The format of each line is:
  41    <literal>type uri args</literal> The first item, <literal>type</literal>
  42    determines the format for <literal>args</literal> <literal>uri</literal> is
  43    a Universal Resource Identifier
  44    (URI), which is a superset of the more specific and well-known Universal
  45    Resource Locator, or URL. The rest of the line can be marked as a comment
  46    by using a #.</para>
  47  </refsect1>
  48
  49  <refsect1><title>sources.list.d</title>
  50    <para>The <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list.d</filename> directory provides
  51    a way to add sources.list entries in seperate files that end with
  52    <literal>.list</literal>. The format is the same as for the regular
  53    <filename>sources.list</filename> file. </para>
  54  </refsect1>
  55
  56  <refsect1><title>The deb and deb-src types</title>
  57    <para>The <literal>deb</literal> type describes a typical two-level Debian
  58    archive, <filename>distribution/component</filename>. Typically,
  59    <literal>distribution</literal> is generally one of
  60    <literal>stable</literal> <literal>unstable</literal> or
  61    <literal>testing</literal> while component is one of <literal>main</literal>
  62    <literal>contrib</literal> <literal>non-free</literal> or
  63    <literal>non-us</literal> The
  64    <literal>deb-src</literal> type describes a debian distribution's source
  65    code in the same form as the <literal>deb</literal> type.
  66    A <literal>deb-src</literal> line is required to fetch source indexes.</para>
  67
  68
  69    <para>The format for a <filename>sources.list</filename> entry using the
  70    <literal>deb</literal> and <literal>deb-src</literal> types are:</para>
  71
  72    <literallayout>deb uri distribution [component1] [component2] [...]</literallayout>
  73
  74    <para>The URI for the <literal>deb</literal> type must specify the base of the
  75    Debian distribution, from which APT will find the information it needs.
  76    <literal>distribution</literal> can specify an exact path, in which case the
  77    components must be omitted and <literal>distribution</literal> must end with
  78    a slash (/). This is useful for when only a particular sub-section of the
  79    archive denoted by the URI is of interest.
  80    If <literal>distribution</literal> does not specify an exact path, at least
  81    one <literal>component</literal> must be present.</para>
  82
  83    <para><literal>distribution</literal> may also contain a variable,
  84    <literal>$(ARCH)</literal>
  85    which expands to the Debian architecture (i386, m68k, powerpc, ...)
  86    used on the system. This permits architecture-independent
  87    <filename>sources.list</filename> files to be used. In general this is only
  88    of interest when specifying an exact path, <literal>APT</literal> will
  89    automatically generate a URI with the current architecture otherwise.</para>
  90
  91    <para>Since only one distribution can be specified per line it may be necessary
  92    to have multiple lines for the same URI, if a subset of all available
  93    distributions or components at that location is desired.
  94    APT will sort the URI list after it has generated a complete set
  95    internally, and will collapse multiple references to the same Internet
  96    host, for instance, into a single connection, so that it does not
  97    inefficiently establish an FTP connection, close it, do something else,
  98    and then re-establish a connection to that same host. This feature is
  99    useful for accessing busy FTP sites with limits on the number of
 100    simultaneous anonymous users. APT also parallelizes connections to
 101    different hosts to more effectively deal with sites with low bandwidth.</para>
 102
 103    <para>It is important to list sources in order of preference, with the most
 104    preferred source listed first. Typically this will result in sorting
 105    by speed from fastest to slowest (CD-ROM followed by hosts on a local
 106    network, followed by distant Internet hosts, for example).</para>
 107
 108    <para>Some examples:</para>
 109    <literallayout>
 110 deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
 111 deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian dists/stable-updates/
 112    </literallayout>
 113
 114  </refsect1>
 115
 116  <refsect1><title>URI specification</title>
 117
 118    <para>The currently recognized URI types are cdrom, file, http, ftp, copy,
 119    ssh, rsh.
 120    <variablelist>
 121     <varlistentry><term>file</term>
 122     <listitem><para>
 123     The file scheme allows an arbitrary directory in the file system to be
 124     considered an archive. This is useful for NFS mounts and local mirrors or
 125     archives.</para></listitem>
 126     </varlistentry>
 127
 128     <varlistentry><term>cdrom</term>
 129     <listitem><para>
 130     The cdrom scheme allows APT to use a local CDROM drive with media
 131     swapping. Use the &apt-cdrom; program to create cdrom entries in the
 132     source list.</para></listitem>
 133     </varlistentry>
 134
 135     <varlistentry><term>http</term>
 136     <listitem><para>
 137     The http scheme specifies an HTTP server for the archive. If an environment
 138     variable <envar>http_proxy</envar> is set with the format
 139     http://server:port/, the proxy server specified in
 140     <envar>http_proxy</envar> will be used. Users of authenticated
 141     HTTP/1.1 proxies may use a string of the format
 142     http://user:pass@server:port/
 143     Note that this is an insecure method of authentication.</para></listitem>
 144     </varlistentry>
 145
 146     <varlistentry><term>ftp</term>
 147     <listitem><para>
 148     The ftp scheme specifies an FTP server for the archive. APT's FTP behavior
 149     is highly configurable; for more information see the
 150     &apt-conf; manual page. Please note that a ftp proxy can be specified
 151     by using the <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> environment variable. It is possible
 152     to specify a http proxy (http proxy servers often understand ftp urls)
 153     using this method and ONLY this method. ftp proxies using http specified in
 154     the configuration file will be ignored.</para></listitem>
 155     </varlistentry>
 156
 157     <varlistentry><term>copy</term>
 158     <listitem><para>
 159     The copy scheme is identical to the file scheme except that packages are
 160     copied into the cache directory instead of used directly at their location.
 161     This is useful for people using a zip disk to copy files around with APT.</para></listitem>
 162     </varlistentry>
 163
 164     <varlistentry><term>rsh</term><term>ssh</term>
 165     <listitem><para>
 166     The rsh/ssh method invokes rsh/ssh to connect to a remote host
 167         as a given user and access the files. It is a good idea to do prior
 168         arrangements with RSA keys or rhosts.
 169     Access to files on the remote uses standard <command>find</command> and
 170     <command>dd</command>
 171     commands to perform the file transfers from the remote.</para></listitem>
 172     </varlistentry>
 173   </variablelist>
 174  </para>
 175  </refsect1>
 176
 177  <refsect1><title>Examples</title>
 178    <para>Uses the archive stored locally (or NFS mounted) at /home/jason/debian
 179    for stable/main, stable/contrib, and stable/non-free.</para>
 180    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian stable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 181
 182    <para>As above, except this uses the unstable (development) distribution.</para>
 183    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 184
 185    <para>Source line for the above</para>
 186    <literallayout>deb-src file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 187
 188    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at archive.debian.org, and uses only
 189    the hamm/main area.</para>
 190    <literallayout>deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive hamm main</literallayout>
 191
 192    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 193    directory, and uses only the stable/contrib area.</para>
 194    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian stable contrib</literallayout>
 195
 196    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 197    directory, and uses only the unstable/contrib area. If this line appears as
 198    well as the one in the previous example in <filename>sources.list</filename>.
 199    a single FTP session will be used for both resource lines.</para>
 200    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable contrib</literallayout>
 201
 202    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at nonus.debian.org, under the
 203     debian-non-US directory.</para>
 204    <literallayout>deb http://nonus.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 205
 206    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at nonus.debian.org, under the
 207    debian-non-US directory, and uses only files found under
 208    <filename>unstable/binary-i386</filename> on i386 machines,
 209    <filename>unstable/binary-m68k</filename> on m68k, and so
 210    forth for other supported architectures. [Note this example only
 211    illustrates how to use the substitution variable; non-us is no longer
 212    structured like this]
 213    <literallayout>deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/binary-$(ARCH)/</literallayout>
 214    </para>
 215  </refsect1>
 216
 217  <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
 218    <para>&apt-cache; &apt-conf;
 219    </para>
 220  </refsect1>
 221
 222  &manbugs;
 223
 224 </refentry>
 225