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 ]>
  12
  13 <refentry>
  14
  15  <refentryinfo>
  16    &apt-author.jgunthorpe;
  17    &apt-author.team;
  18    &apt-email;
  19    &apt-product;
  20    <!-- The last update date -->
  21    <date>2012-06-09T00:00:00Z</date>
  22  </refentryinfo>
  23
  24  <refmeta>
  25    <refentrytitle>sources.list</refentrytitle>
  26    <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
  27    <refmiscinfo class="manual">APT</refmiscinfo>
  28  </refmeta>
  29
  30  <!-- Man page title -->
  31  <refnamediv>
  32     <refname>sources.list</refname>
  33     <refpurpose>List of configured APT data sources</refpurpose>
  34  </refnamediv>
  35
  36  <refsect1><title>Description</title>
  37    <para>
  38    The source list <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename> is designed to support
  39    any number of active sources and a variety of source media. The file lists one
  40    source per line, with the most preferred source listed first. The information available
  41    from the configured sources is acquired by <command>apt-get update</command>
  42    (or by an equivalent command from another APT front-end).
  43    </para>
  44    <para>
  45    Each line specifying a source starts with type (e.g. <literal>deb-src</literal>)
  46    followed by options and arguments for this type.
  47    Individual entries cannot be continued onto a following line. Empty lines
  48    are ignored, and a <literal>#</literal> character anywhere on a line marks
  49    the remainder of that line as a comment.
  50    </para>
  51  </refsect1>
  52
  53  <refsect1><title>sources.list.d</title>
  54    <para>The <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list.d</filename> directory provides
  55    a way to add sources.list entries in separate files.
  56    The format is the same as for the regular <filename>sources.list</filename> file.
  57    File names need to end with
  58    <filename>.list</filename> and may only contain letters (a-z and A-Z),
  59    digits (0-9), underscore (_), hyphen (-) and period (.) characters.
  60    Otherwise APT will print a notice that it has ignored a file, unless that
  61    file matches a pattern in the <literal>Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently</literal>
  62    configuration list - in which case it will be silently ignored.</para>
  63  </refsect1>
  64
  65  <refsect1><title>The deb and deb-src types</title>
  66    <para>The <literal>deb</literal> type references a typical two-level Debian
  67    archive, <filename>distribution/component</filename>. The
  68    <literal>distribution</literal> is generally an archive name like
  69    <literal>stable</literal> or <literal>testing</literal> or a codename like
  70    <literal>&stable-codename;</literal> or <literal>&testing-codename;</literal>
  71    while component is one of <literal>main</literal>, <literal>contrib</literal> or
  72    <literal>non-free</literal>. The
  73    <literal>deb-src</literal> type references a Debian distribution's source
  74    code in the same form as the <literal>deb</literal> type.
  75    A <literal>deb-src</literal> line is required to fetch source indexes.</para>
  76
  77
  78    <para>The format for a <filename>sources.list</filename> entry using the
  79    <literal>deb</literal> and <literal>deb-src</literal> types is:</para>
  80
  81    <literallayout>deb [ options ] uri distribution [component1] [component2] [...]</literallayout>
  82
  83    <para>The URI for the <literal>deb</literal> type must specify the base of the
  84    Debian distribution, from which APT will find the information it needs.
  85    <literal>distribution</literal> can specify an exact path, in which case the
  86    components must be omitted and <literal>distribution</literal> must end with
  87    a slash (<literal>/</literal>). This is useful for the case when only a
  88    particular sub-section of the archive denoted by the URI is of interest.
  89    If <literal>distribution</literal> does not specify an exact path, at least
  90    one <literal>component</literal> must be present.</para>
  91
  92    <para><literal>distribution</literal> may also contain a variable,
  93    <literal>$(ARCH)</literal>
  94    which expands to the Debian architecture (such as <literal>amd64</literal> or
  95    <literal>armel</literal>) used on the system. This permits architecture-independent
  96    <filename>sources.list</filename> files to be used. In general this is only
  97    of interest when specifying an exact path, <literal>APT</literal> will
  98    automatically generate a URI with the current architecture otherwise.</para>
  99
 100    <para>Since only one distribution can be specified per line it may be necessary
 101    to have multiple lines for the same URI, if a subset of all available
 102    distributions or components at that location is desired.
 103    APT will sort the URI list after it has generated a complete set
 104    internally, and will collapse multiple references to the same Internet
 105    host, for instance, into a single connection, so that it does not
 106    inefficiently establish an FTP connection, close it, do something else,
 107    and then re-establish a connection to that same host. This feature is
 108    useful for accessing busy FTP sites with limits on the number of
 109    simultaneous anonymous users. APT also parallelizes connections to
 110    different hosts to more effectively deal with sites with low bandwidth.</para>
 111
 112    <para><literal>options</literal> is always optional and needs to be surrounded by
 113    square brackets. It can consist of multiple settings in the form
 114    <literal><replaceable>setting</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></literal>.
 115    Multiple settings are separated by spaces. The following settings are supported by APT
 116    (note however that unsupported settings will be ignored silently):
 117    <itemizedlist><listitem><para><literal>arch=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
 118    can be used to specify for which architectures information should
 119    be downloaded. If this option is not set all architectures defined by the
 120    <literal>APT::Architectures</literal> option will be downloaded.</para></listitem>
 121    <listitem><para><literal>trusted=yes</literal> can be set to indicate that packages
 122    from this source are always authenticated even if the <filename>Release</filename> file
 123    is not signed or the signature can't be checked. This disables parts of &apt-secure;
 124    and should therefore only be used in a local and trusted context. <literal>trusted=no</literal>
 125    is the opposite which handles even correctly authenticated sources as not authenticated.</para></listitem>
 126    </itemizedlist></para>
 127
 128    <para>It is important to list sources in order of preference, with the most
 129    preferred source listed first. Typically this will result in sorting
 130    by speed from fastest to slowest (CD-ROM followed by hosts on a local
 131    network, followed by distant Internet hosts, for example).</para>
 132
 133    <para>Some examples:</para>
 134    <literallayout>
 135 deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main contrib non-free
 136 deb http://security.debian.org/ &stable-codename;/updates main contrib non-free
 137    </literallayout>
 138
 139  </refsect1>
 140
 141  <refsect1><title>URI specification</title>
 142
 143     <para>The currently recognized URI types are:
 144    <variablelist>
 145     <varlistentry><term><command>file</command></term>
 146     <listitem><para>
 147     The file scheme allows an arbitrary directory in the file system to be
 148     considered an archive. This is useful for NFS mounts and local mirrors or
 149     archives.</para></listitem>
 150     </varlistentry>
 151
 152     <varlistentry><term><command>cdrom</command></term>
 153     <listitem><para>
 154     The cdrom scheme allows APT to use a local CD-ROM drive with media
 155     swapping. Use the &apt-cdrom; program to create cdrom entries in the
 156     source list.</para></listitem>
 157     </varlistentry>
 158
 159     <varlistentry><term><command>http</command></term>
 160     <listitem><para>
 161     The http scheme specifies an HTTP server for the archive. If an environment
 162     variable <envar>http_proxy</envar> is set with the format
 163     http://server:port/, the proxy server specified in
 164     <envar>http_proxy</envar> will be used. Users of authenticated
 165     HTTP/1.1 proxies may use a string of the format
 166     http://user:pass@server:port/.
 167     Note that this is an insecure method of authentication.</para></listitem>
 168     </varlistentry>
 169
 170     <varlistentry><term><command>ftp</command></term>
 171     <listitem><para>
 172     The ftp scheme specifies an FTP server for the archive. APT's FTP behavior
 173     is highly configurable; for more information see the
 174     &apt-conf; manual page. Please note that an FTP proxy can be specified
 175     by using the <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> environment variable. It is possible
 176     to specify an HTTP proxy (HTTP proxy servers often understand FTP URLs)
 177     using this environment variable and <emphasis>only</emphasis> this
 178     environment variable. Proxies using HTTP specified in
 179     the configuration file will be ignored.</para></listitem>
 180     </varlistentry>
 181
 182     <varlistentry><term><command>copy</command></term>
 183     <listitem><para>
 184     The copy scheme is identical to the file scheme except that packages are
 185     copied into the cache directory instead of used directly at their location.
 186     This is useful for people using removable media to copy files around with APT.</para></listitem>
 187     </varlistentry>
 188
 189     <varlistentry><term><command>rsh</command></term><term><command>ssh</command></term>
 190     <listitem><para>
 191     The rsh/ssh method invokes RSH/SSH to connect to a remote host and
 192     access the files as a given user. Prior configuration of rhosts or RSA keys
 193     is recommended. The standard <command>find</command> and <command>dd</command>
 194     commands are used to perform the file transfers from the remote host.
 195     </para></listitem>
 196     </varlistentry>
 197
 198     <varlistentry><term>adding more recognizable URI types</term>
 199     <listitem><para>
 200     APT can be extended with more methods shipped in other optional packages, which should
 201     follow the naming scheme <package>apt-transport-<replaceable>method</replaceable></package>.
 202     For instance, the APT team also maintains the package <package>apt-transport-https</package>,
 203     which provides access methods for HTTPS URIs with features similar to the http method.
 204     Methods for using e.g. debtorrent are also available - see &apt-transport-debtorrent;.
 205     </para></listitem>
 206     </varlistentry>
 207   </variablelist>
 208  </para>
 209  </refsect1>
 210
 211  <refsect1><title>Examples</title>
 212    <para>Uses the archive stored locally (or NFS mounted) at /home/jason/debian
 213    for stable/main, stable/contrib, and stable/non-free.</para>
 214    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian stable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 215
 216    <para>As above, except this uses the unstable (development) distribution.</para>
 217    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 218
 219    <para>Source line for the above</para>
 220    <literallayout>deb-src file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 221
 222    <para>The first line gets package information for the architectures in <literal>APT::Architectures</literal>
 223    while the second always retrieves <literal>amd64</literal> and <literal>armel</literal>.</para>
 224    <literallayout>deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main
 225 deb [ arch=amd64,armel ] http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main</literallayout>
 226
 227    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at archive.debian.org, and uses only
 228    the hamm/main area.</para>
 229    <literallayout>deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive hamm main</literallayout>
 230
 231    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 232    directory, and uses only the &stable-codename;/contrib area.</para>
 233    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; contrib</literallayout>
 234
 235    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 236    directory, and uses only the unstable/contrib area. If this line appears as
 237    well as the one in the previous example in <filename>sources.list</filename>
 238    a single FTP session will be used for both resource lines.</para>
 239    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable contrib</literallayout>
 240
 241    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at ftp.tlh.debian.org, under the
 242    universe directory, and uses only files found under
 243    <filename>unstable/binary-i386</filename> on i386 machines,
 244    <filename>unstable/binary-amd64</filename> on amd64, and so
 245    forth for other supported architectures. [Note this example only
 246    illustrates how to use the substitution variable; official debian
 247    archives are not structured like this]
 248    <literallayout>deb http://ftp.tlh.debian.org/universe unstable/binary-$(ARCH)/</literallayout>
 249    </para>
 250  </refsect1>
 251
 252  <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
 253    <para>&apt-cache; &apt-conf;
 254    </para>
 255  </refsect1>
 256
 257  &manbugs;
 258
 259 </refentry>
 260