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, and ftp.
 119    <variablelist>
 120     <varlistentry><term>file</term>
 121     <listitem><para>
 122     The file scheme allows an arbitrary directory in the file system to be
 123     considered an archive. This is useful for NFS mounts and local mirrors or
 124     archives.</para></listitem>
 125     </varlistentry>
 126
 127     <varlistentry><term>cdrom</term>
 128     <listitem><para>
 129     The cdrom scheme allows APT to use a local CDROM drive with media
 130     swapping. Use the &apt-cdrom; program to create cdrom entries in the
 131     source list.</para></listitem>
 132     </varlistentry>
 133
 134     <varlistentry><term>http</term>
 135     <listitem><para>
 136     The http scheme specifies an HTTP server for the archive. If an environment
 137     variable <envar>http_proxy</envar> is set with the format
 138     http://server:port/, the proxy server specified in
 139     <envar>http_proxy</envar> will be used. Users of authenticated
 140     HTTP/1.1 proxies may use a string of the format
 141     http://user:pass@server:port/
 142     Note that this is an insecure method of authentication.</para></listitem>
 143     </varlistentry>
 144
 145     <varlistentry><term>ftp</term>
 146     <listitem><para>
 147     The ftp scheme specifies an FTP server for the archive. APT's FTP behavior
 148     is highly configurable; for more information see the
 149     &apt-conf; manual page. Please note that a ftp proxy can be specified
 150     by using the <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> environment variable. It is possible
 151     to specify a http proxy (http proxy servers often understand ftp urls)
 152     using this method and ONLY this method. ftp proxies using http specified in
 153     the configuration file will be ignored.</para></listitem>
 154     </varlistentry>
 155
 156     <varlistentry><term>copy</term>
 157     <listitem><para>
 158     The copy scheme is identical to the file scheme except that packages are
 159     copied into the cache directory instead of used directly at their location.
 160     This is useful for people using a zip disk to copy files around with APT.</para></listitem>
 161     </varlistentry>
 162
 163     <varlistentry><term>rsh</term><term>ssh</term>
 164     <listitem><para>
 165     The rsh/ssh method invokes rsh/ssh to connect to a remote host
 166     as a given user and access the files. No password authentication is
 167     possible, prior arrangements with RSA keys or rhosts must have been made.
 168     Access to files on the remote uses standard <command>find</command> and
 169     <command>dd</command>
 170     commands to perform the file transfers from the remote.</para></listitem>
 171     </varlistentry>
 172   </variablelist>
 173  </para>
 174  </refsect1>
 175
 176  <refsect1><title>Examples</title>
 177    <para>Uses the archive stored locally (or NFS mounted) at /home/jason/debian
 178    for stable/main, stable/contrib, and stable/non-free.</para>
 179    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian stable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 180
 181    <para>As above, except this uses the unstable (development) distribution.</para>
 182    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 183
 184    <para>Source line for the above</para>
 185    <literallayout>deb-src file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 186
 187    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at archive.debian.org, and uses only
 188    the hamm/main area.</para>
 189    <literallayout>deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive hamm main</literallayout>
 190
 191    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 192    directory, and uses only the stable/contrib area.</para>
 193    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian stable contrib</literallayout>
 194
 195    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 196    directory, and uses only the unstable/contrib area. If this line appears as
 197    well as the one in the previous example in <filename>sources.list</filename>.
 198    a single FTP session will be used for both resource lines.</para>
 199    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable contrib</literallayout>
 200
 201    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at nonus.debian.org, under the
 202     debian-non-US directory.</para>
 203    <literallayout>deb http://nonus.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 204
 205    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at nonus.debian.org, under the
 206    debian-non-US directory, and uses only files found under
 207    <filename>unstable/binary-i3866</filename> on i386 machines,
 208    <filename>unstable/binary-m68k</filename> on m68k, and so
 209    forth for other supported architectures. [Note this example only
 210    illustrates how to use the substitution variable; non-us is no longer
 211    structured like this]
 212    <literallayout>deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/binary-$(ARCH)/</literallayout>
 213    </para>
 214  </refsect1>
 215
 216  <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
 217    <para>&apt-cache; &apt-conf;
 218    </para>
 219  </refsect1>
 220
 221  &manbugs;
 222
 223 </refentry>
 224