doc/sources.list.5.sgml

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   9 <refentry>
  10  &apt-docinfo;
  11
  12  <refmeta>
  13    <refentrytitle>sources.list</>
  14    <manvolnum>5</>
  15  </refmeta>
  16
  17  <!-- Man page title -->
  18  <refnamediv>
  19     <refname>sources.list</>
  20     <refpurpose>Package resource list for APT</>
  21  </refnamediv>
  22
  23  <RefSect1><Title>Description</>
  24    <para>
  25    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</>
  29    <para>
  30    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/. The first item, <literal/type/, determines the
  34    format for <literal/args/. <literal/uri/ is a Universal Resource Identifier
  35    (URI), which is a superset of the more specific and well-known Universal
  36    Resource Locator, or URL. The rest of the line can be marked as a comment
  37    by using a #.
  38  </RefSect1>
  39
  40  <RefSect1><Title>The deb and deb-src types</>
  41    <para>
  42    The <literal/deb/ type describes a typical two-level Debian archive,
  43    <filename>distribution/component</>. Typically, <literal/distribution/ is
  44    generally one of <literal/stable/, <literal/unstable/, or
  45    <literal/frozen/, while component is one of <literal/main/,
  46    <literal/contrib/, <literal/non-free/, or <literal/non-us/. The
  47    <literal/deb-src/ type describes a debian distribution's source code in
  48    the same form as the <literal/deb/ type. A <literal/deb-src/ line is
  49    required to fetch source indexes.
  50    <para>
  51    The format for a <filename/sources.list/ entry using the <literal/deb/
  52    and <literal/deb-src/ types are:
  53    <literallayout>deb uri distribution [component1] [componenent2] [...]</literallayout>
  54    <para>
  55    The URI for the <literal/deb/ type must specify the base of the Debian
  56    distribution, from which APT will find the information it needs.
  57    <literal/distribution/ can specify an exact path, in which case the
  58    components must be omitted and <literal/distribution/ must end with a
  59    slash (/). This is useful for when only a particular sub-section of the
  60    archive denoted by the URI is of interest. If <literal/distribution/ does
  61    not specify an exact path, at least one <literal/component/ must be present.
  62    <para>
  63    <literal/distribution/ may also contain a variable, <literal/$(ARCH)/,
  64    which expands to the Debian architecture (i386, m68k, powerpc, ...)
  65    used on the system. This permits archiecture-independent
  66    <filename/sources.list/ files to be used. In general this is only of
  67    interest when specifying an exact path, <literal/APT/ will automatically
  68    generate a URI with the current architecture otherwise.
  69    <para>
  70    Since only one distribution can be specified per line it may be necessary
  71    to have multiple lines for the same URI, if a subset of all available
  72    distributions or components at that location is desired.
  73    APT will sort the URI list after it has generated a complete set
  74    internally, and will collapse multiple references to the same Internet
  75    host, for instance, into a single connection, so that it does not
  76    inefficiently establish an FTP connection, close it, do something else,
  77    and then re-establish a connection to that same host. This feature is
  78    useful for accessing busy FTP sites with limits on the number of
  79    simultaneous anonymous users. bf(APT) also parallizes connections to
  80    different hosts to more effectively deal with sites with low bandwidth.
  81    <para>
  82    It is important to list sources in order of preference, with the most
  83    preferred source listed first. Typically this will result in sorting
  84    by speed from fastest to slowest (CD-ROM followed by hosts on a local
  85    network, followed by distant Internet hosts, for example).
  86    <para>
  87    Some examples:
  88    <literallayout>
  89 deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
  90 deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian dists/stable-updates/
  91    </literallayout>
  92  </RefSect1>
  93
  94  <RefSect1><title>URI specification</title>
  95    <para>
  96    The currently recognized URI types are cdrom, file, http, and ftp.
  97    <VariableList>
  98     <VarListEntry><term>file</term>
  99     <ListItem><Para>
 100     The file scheme allows an arbitrary directory in the file system to be
 101     considered an archive. This is useful for NFS mounts and local mirrors or
 102     archives.
 103     </VarListEntry>
 104
 105     <VarListEntry><term>cdrom</term>
 106     <ListItem><Para>
 107     The cdrom scheme allows APT to use a local CDROM drive with media
 108     swapping. Use the &apt-cdrom; program to create cdrom entries in the
 109     source list.
 110     </VarListEntry>
 111
 112     <VarListEntry><term>http</term>
 113     <ListItem><Para>
 114     The http scheme specifies an HTTP server for the archive. If an environment
 115     variable <EnVar/http_proxy/ is set with the format
 116     http://server:port/, the proxy server specified in
 117     <EnVar/http_proxy/ will be used. Users of authenticated HTTP/1.1 proxies
 118     may use a string of the format http://user:pass@server:port/
 119     Note that this is an insecure method of authentication.
 120     </VarListEntry>
 121
 122     <VarListEntry><term>ftp</term>
 123     <ListItem><Para>
 124     The ftp scheme specifies an FTP server for the archive. APT's FTP behavior
 125     is highly configurable; for more information see the
 126     &apt-conf; manual page. Please note that a ftp proxy can be specified
 127     by using the <EnVar/ftp_proxy/ environment variable. It is possible to
 128     specify a http proxy (http proxy servers often understand ftp urls) using
 129     this method and ONLY this method. ftp proxies using http specified in the
 130     configuration file will be ignored.
 131     </VarListEntry>
 132
 133     <VarListEntry><term>copy</term>
 134     <ListItem><Para>
 135     The copy scheme is identical to the file scheme except that packages are
 136     copied into the cache directory instead of used directly at their location.
 137     This is useful for people using a zip disk to copy files around with APT.
 138     </VarListEntry>
 139
 140     <VarListEntry><term>rsh</term><term>ssh</term>
 141     <ListItem><Para>
 142     The rsh/ssh method method invokes rsh/ssh to connect to a remote host
 143     as a given user and access the files. No password authentication is
 144     possible, prior arrangements with RSA keys or rhosts must have been made.
 145     Access to files on the remote uses standard <command/find/ and <command/dd/
 146     commands to perform the file transfers from the remote.
 147     </VarListEntry>
 148   </VariableList>
 149  </RefSect1>
 150
 151  <RefSect1><title>Examples</title>
 152    <para>
 153    Uses the archive stored locally (or NFS mounted) at /home/jason/debian
 154    for stable/main, stable/contrib, and stable/non-free.
 155    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian stable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 156    <para>
 157    As above, except this uses the unstable (development) distribution.
 158    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 159    <para>
 160    Source line for the above
 161    <literallayout>deb-src file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 162    <para>
 163    Uses HTTP to access the archive at archive.debian.org, and uses only the
 164    hamm/main area.
 165    <literallayout>deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive hamm main</literallayout>
 166    <para>
 167    Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 168    directory, and uses only the stable/contrib area.
 169    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian stable contrib</literallayout>
 170    <para>
 171    Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 172    directory, and uses only the unstable/contrib area. If this line appears as
 173    well as the one in the previous example in <filename/sources.list/,
 174    a single FTP session will be used for both resource lines.
 175    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable contrib</literallayout>
 176    <para>
 177    Uses HTTP to access the archive at nonus.debian.org, under the debian-non-US
 178    directory.
 179    <literallayout>deb http://nonus.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 180    <para>
 181    Uses HTTP to access the archive at nonus.debian.org, under the
 182    debian-non-US directory, and uses only files found under
 183    <filename>unstable/binary-i386</> on i386 machines,
 184    <filename>unstable/binary-m68k</> on m68k, and so
 185    forth for other supported architectures. [Note this example only
 186    illustrates how to use the substitution variable; non-us is no longer
 187    structured like this]
 188    <literallayout>deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/binary-$(ARCH)/</literallayout>
 189  </RefSect1>
 190
 191  <RefSect1><Title>See Also</>
 192    <para>
 193    &apt-cache; &apt-conf;
 194  </RefSect1>
 195
 196  &manbugs;
 197  &manauthor;
 198
 199 </refentry>