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>2014-01-18T00:00:00Z</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      Suites: stable
  89      Sections: component1 component2
  90      Description: short
  91       long long long
  92      [option1]: [option1-value]
  93
  94      Type: deb-src
  95      URI: http://example.com
  96      Suites: stable
  97      Sections: component1 component2
  98      [option1]: [option1-value]
  99      Description: short
 100       long long long
 101    </literallayout>
 102    </para>
 103
 104    <para>The URI for the <literal>deb</literal> type must specify the base of the
 105    Debian distribution, from which APT will find the information it needs.
 106    <literal>suite</literal> can specify an exact path, in which case the
 107    components must be omitted and <literal>suite</literal> must end with
 108    a slash (<literal>/</literal>). This is useful for the case when only a
 109    particular sub-section of the archive denoted by the URI is of interest.
 110    If <literal>suite</literal> does not specify an exact path, at least
 111    one <literal>component</literal> must be present.</para>
 112
 113    <para><literal>suite</literal> may also contain a variable,
 114    <literal>$(ARCH)</literal>
 115    which expands to the Debian architecture (such as <literal>amd64</literal> or
 116    <literal>armel</literal>) used on the system. This permits architecture-independent
 117    <filename>sources.list</filename> files to be used. In general this is only
 118    of interest when specifying an exact path, <literal>APT</literal> will
 119    automatically generate a URI with the current architecture otherwise.</para>
 120
 121    <para>In the traditional style sources.list format since only one
 122    distribution can be specified per line it may be necessary to have
 123    multiple lines for the same URI, if a subset of all available
 124    distributions or components at that location is desired.  APT will
 125    sort the URI list after it has generated a complete set internally,
 126    and will collapse multiple references to the same Internet host,
 127    for instance, into a single connection, so that it does not
 128    inefficiently establish an FTP connection, close it, do something
 129    else, and then re-establish a connection to that same host. This
 130    feature is useful for accessing busy FTP sites with limits on the
 131    number of simultaneous anonymous users. APT also parallelizes
 132    connections to different hosts to more effectively deal with sites
 133    with low bandwidth.</para>
 134
 135    <para><literal>options</literal> is always optional and needs to be surrounded by
 136    square brackets. It can consist of multiple settings in the form
 137    <literal><replaceable>setting</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></literal>.
 138    Multiple settings are separated by spaces. The following settings are supported by APT
 139    (note however that unsupported settings will be ignored silently):
 140    <itemizedlist>
 141    <listitem><para><literal>arch=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
 142    can be used to specify for which architectures information should
 143    be downloaded. If this option is not set all architectures defined by the
 144    <literal>APT::Architectures</literal> option will be downloaded.</para></listitem>
 145    <listitem><para><literal>arch+=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
 146    and <literal>arch-=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
 147    which can be used to add/remove architectures from the set which will be downloaded.</para></listitem>
 148    <listitem><para><literal>trusted=yes</literal> can be set to indicate that packages
 149    from this source are always authenticated even if the <filename>Release</filename> file
 150    is not signed or the signature can't be checked. This disables parts of &apt-secure;
 151    and should therefore only be used in a local and trusted context. <literal>trusted=no</literal>
 152    is the opposite which handles even correctly authenticated sources as not authenticated.</para></listitem>
 153    </itemizedlist></para>
 154
 155    <para>It is important to list sources in order of preference, with the most
 156    preferred source listed first. Typically this will result in sorting
 157    by speed from fastest to slowest (CD-ROM followed by hosts on a local
 158    network, followed by distant Internet hosts, for example).</para>
 159
 160    <para>Some examples:</para>
 161    <literallayout>
 162 deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main contrib non-free
 163 deb http://security.debian.org/ &stable-codename;/updates main contrib non-free
 164    </literallayout>
 165
 166  </refsect1>
 167
 168  <refsect1><title>URI specification</title>
 169
 170     <para>The currently recognized URI types are:
 171    <variablelist>
 172     <varlistentry><term><command>file</command></term>
 173     <listitem><para>
 174     The file scheme allows an arbitrary directory in the file system to be
 175     considered an archive. This is useful for NFS mounts and local mirrors or
 176     archives.</para></listitem>
 177     </varlistentry>
 178
 179     <varlistentry><term><command>cdrom</command></term>
 180     <listitem><para>
 181     The cdrom scheme allows APT to use a local CD-ROM drive with media
 182     swapping. Use the &apt-cdrom; program to create cdrom entries in the
 183     source list.</para></listitem>
 184     </varlistentry>
 185
 186     <varlistentry><term><command>http</command></term>
 187     <listitem><para>
 188     The http scheme specifies an HTTP server for the archive. If an environment
 189     variable <envar>http_proxy</envar> is set with the format
 190     http://server:port/, the proxy server specified in
 191     <envar>http_proxy</envar> will be used. Users of authenticated
 192     HTTP/1.1 proxies may use a string of the format
 193     http://user:pass@server:port/.
 194     Note that this is an insecure method of authentication.</para></listitem>
 195     </varlistentry>
 196
 197     <varlistentry><term><command>ftp</command></term>
 198     <listitem><para>
 199     The ftp scheme specifies an FTP server for the archive. APT's FTP behavior
 200     is highly configurable; for more information see the
 201     &apt-conf; manual page. Please note that an FTP proxy can be specified
 202     by using the <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> environment variable. It is possible
 203     to specify an HTTP proxy (HTTP proxy servers often understand FTP URLs)
 204     using this environment variable and <emphasis>only</emphasis> this
 205     environment variable. Proxies using HTTP specified in
 206     the configuration file will be ignored.</para></listitem>
 207     </varlistentry>
 208
 209     <varlistentry><term><command>copy</command></term>
 210     <listitem><para>
 211     The copy scheme is identical to the file scheme except that packages are
 212     copied into the cache directory instead of used directly at their location.
 213     This is useful for people using removable media to copy files around with APT.</para></listitem>
 214     </varlistentry>
 215
 216     <varlistentry><term><command>rsh</command></term><term><command>ssh</command></term>
 217     <listitem><para>
 218     The rsh/ssh method invokes RSH/SSH to connect to a remote host and
 219     access the files as a given user. Prior configuration of rhosts or RSA keys
 220     is recommended. The standard <command>find</command> and <command>dd</command>
 221     commands are used to perform the file transfers from the remote host.
 222     </para></listitem>
 223     </varlistentry>
 224
 225     <varlistentry><term>adding more recognizable URI types</term>
 226     <listitem><para>
 227     APT can be extended with more methods shipped in other optional packages, which should
 228     follow the naming scheme <package>apt-transport-<replaceable>method</replaceable></package>.
 229     For instance, the APT team also maintains the package <package>apt-transport-https</package>,
 230     which provides access methods for HTTPS URIs with features similar to the http method.
 231     Methods for using e.g. debtorrent are also available - see &apt-transport-debtorrent;.
 232     </para></listitem>
 233     </varlistentry>
 234   </variablelist>
 235  </para>
 236  </refsect1>
 237
 238  <refsect1><title>Examples</title>
 239    <para>Uses the archive stored locally (or NFS mounted) at /home/jason/debian
 240    for stable/main, stable/contrib, and stable/non-free.</para>
 241    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian stable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 242
 243    <para>As above, except this uses the unstable (development) distribution.</para>
 244    <literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 245
 246    <para>Source line for the above</para>
 247    <literallayout>deb-src file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
 248
 249    <para>The first line gets package information for the architectures in <literal>APT::Architectures</literal>
 250    while the second always retrieves <literal>amd64</literal> and <literal>armel</literal>.</para>
 251    <literallayout>deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main
 252 deb [ arch=amd64,armel ] http://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; main</literallayout>
 253
 254    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at archive.debian.org, and uses only
 255    the hamm/main area.</para>
 256    <literallayout>deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive hamm main</literallayout>
 257
 258    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 259    directory, and uses only the &stable-codename;/contrib area.</para>
 260    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian &stable-codename; contrib</literallayout>
 261
 262    <para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
 263    directory, and uses only the unstable/contrib area. If this line appears as
 264    well as the one in the previous example in <filename>sources.list</filename>
 265    a single FTP session will be used for both resource lines.</para>
 266    <literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable contrib</literallayout>
 267
 268    <para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at ftp.tlh.debian.org, under the
 269    universe directory, and uses only files found under
 270    <filename>unstable/binary-i386</filename> on i386 machines,
 271    <filename>unstable/binary-amd64</filename> on amd64, and so
 272    forth for other supported architectures. [Note this example only
 273    illustrates how to use the substitution variable; official debian
 274    archives are not structured like this]
 275    <literallayout>deb http://ftp.tlh.debian.org/universe unstable/binary-$(ARCH)/</literallayout>
 276    </para>
 277  </refsect1>
 278
 279  <refsect1><title>See Also</title>
 280    <para>&apt-cache; &apt-conf;
 281    </para>
 282  </refsect1>
 283
 284  &manbugs;
 285
 286 </refentry>
 287