</refnamediv>
<refsect1><title>Description</title>
- <para>The package resource list is used to locate archives of the package
- distribution system in use on the system. At this time, this manual page
- documents only the packaging system used by the Debian system.
- This control file is <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename>.</para>
-
- <para>The source list is designed to support any number of active sources and a
- variety of source media. The file lists one source per line, with the
- most preferred source listed first. The format of each line is:
- <literal>type uri args</literal> The first item, <literal>type</literal>
- determines the format for <literal>args</literal>. <literal>uri</literal> is
- a Universal Resource Identifier
- (URI), which is a superset of the more specific and well-known Universal
- Resource Locator, or URL. The rest of the line can be marked as a comment
- by using a #.</para>
+ <para>
+ The source list <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename> is designed to support
+ any number of active sources and a variety of source media. The file lists one
+ source per line, with the most preferred source listed first. The information available
+ from the configured sources is acquired by <command>apt-get update</command>
+ (or by an equivalent command from another APT front-end).
+ </para>
+ <para>
+ Each line specifying a source starts with type (e.g. <literal>deb-src</literal>)
+ followed by options and arguments for this type.
+ Individual entries cannot be continued onto a following line. Empty lines
+ are ignored, and a <literal>#</literal> character anywhere on a line marks
+ the remainder of that line as a comment.
+ </para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1><title>sources.list.d</title>
digits (0-9), underscore (_), hyphen (-) and period (.) characters.
Otherwise APT will print a notice that it has ignored a file, unless that
file matches a pattern in the <literal>Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently</literal>
- configuration list - in this case it will be silently ignored.</para>
+ configuration list - in which case it will be silently ignored.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1><title>The deb and deb-src types</title>
- <para>The <literal>deb</literal> type describes a typical two-level Debian
- archive, <filename>distribution/component</filename>. Typically,
- <literal>distribution</literal> is generally an archivename like
+ <para>The <literal>deb</literal> type references a typical two-level Debian
+ archive, <filename>distribution/component</filename>. The
+ <literal>distribution</literal> is generally an archive name like
<literal>stable</literal> or <literal>testing</literal> or a codename like
<literal>&stable-codename;</literal> or <literal>&testing-codename;</literal>
- while component is one of <literal>main</literal> <literal>contrib</literal> or
+ while component is one of <literal>main</literal>, <literal>contrib</literal> or
<literal>non-free</literal>. The
- <literal>deb-src</literal> type describes a debian distribution's source
+ <literal>deb-src</literal> type references a Debian distribution's source
code in the same form as the <literal>deb</literal> type.
A <literal>deb-src</literal> line is required to fetch source indexes.</para>
Debian distribution, from which APT will find the information it needs.
<literal>distribution</literal> can specify an exact path, in which case the
components must be omitted and <literal>distribution</literal> must end with
- a slash (/). This is useful for when the case only a particular sub-section of the
- archive denoted by the URI is of interest.
+ a slash (<literal>/</literal>). This is useful for the case when only a
+ particular sub-section of the archive denoted by the URI is of interest.
If <literal>distribution</literal> does not specify an exact path, at least
one <literal>component</literal> must be present.</para>
<para><literal>distribution</literal> may also contain a variable,
<literal>$(ARCH)</literal>
- which expands to the Debian architecture (i386, m68k, powerpc, ...)
- used on the system. This permits architecture-independent
+ which expands to the Debian architecture (such as <literal>amd64</literal> or
+ <literal>armel</literal>) used on the system. This permits architecture-independent
<filename>sources.list</filename> files to be used. In general this is only
of interest when specifying an exact path, <literal>APT</literal> will
automatically generate a URI with the current architecture otherwise.</para>
simultaneous anonymous users. APT also parallelizes connections to
different hosts to more effectively deal with sites with low bandwidth.</para>
- <para><literal>options</literal> is always optional and needs to be surounded by
+ <para><literal>options</literal> is always optional and needs to be surrounded by
square brackets. It can consist of multiple settings in the form
<literal><replaceable>setting</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></literal>.
- Multiple settings are separated by spaces. The following settings are supported by APT,
- note though that unsupported settings will be ignored silently:
+ Multiple settings are separated by spaces. The following settings are supported by APT
+ (note however that unsupported settings will be ignored silently):
<itemizedlist><listitem><para><literal>arch=<replaceable>arch1</replaceable>,<replaceable>arch2</replaceable>,…</literal>
- can be used to specify for which architectures packages information should
+ can be used to specify for which architectures information should
be downloaded. If this option is not set all architectures defined by the
<literal>APT::Architectures</literal> option will be downloaded.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para><literal>trusted=yes</literal> can be set to indicate that packages
<listitem><para>
The ftp scheme specifies an FTP server for the archive. APT's FTP behavior
is highly configurable; for more information see the
- &apt-conf; manual page. Please note that a ftp proxy can be specified
+ &apt-conf; manual page. Please note that an FTP proxy can be specified
by using the <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> environment variable. It is possible
- to specify a http proxy (http proxy servers often understand ftp urls)
- using this method and ONLY this method. ftp proxies using http specified in
+ to specify an HTTP proxy (HTTP proxy servers often understand FTP URLs)
+ using this environment variable and <emphasis>ONLY</emphasis> this
+ environment variable. Proxies using HTTP specified in
the configuration file will be ignored.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<listitem><para>
The copy scheme is identical to the file scheme except that packages are
copied into the cache directory instead of used directly at their location.
- This is useful for people using a zip disk to copy files around with APT.</para></listitem>
+ This is useful for people using removable media to copy files around with APT.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term><command>rsh</command></term><term><command>ssh</command></term>
<listitem><para>
- The rsh/ssh method invokes rsh/ssh to connect to a remote host
- as a given user and access the files. It is a good idea to do prior
- arrangements with RSA keys or rhosts.
- Access to files on the remote uses standard <command>find</command> and
- <command>dd</command>
- commands to perform the file transfers from the remote.</para></listitem>
+ The rsh/ssh method invokes RSH/SSH to connect to a remote host and
+ access the files as a given user. Prior configuration of rhosts or RSA keys
+ is recommended. The standard <command>find</command> and <command>dd</command>
+ commands are used to perform the file transfers from the remote host.
+ </para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry><term>adding more recognizable URI types</term>
<listitem><para>
- APT can be extended with more methods shipped in other optional packages which should
- follow the nam
eing scheme <package>apt-transport-<replaceable>method</replaceable></package>.
- The APT team e.g. maintains also the <package>apt-transport-https</package> package which
- provides access methods for https-URIs with features similar to the http method, but other
- methods for using e.g. debtorrent are also available, see &apt-transport-debtorrent;.
+ APT can be extended with more methods shipped in other optional packages, which should
+ follow the naming scheme <package>apt-transport-<replaceable>method</replaceable></package>.
+ For instance, the APT team also maintains the package <package>apt-transport-https</package>,
+ which provides access methods for HTTPS URIs with features similar to the http method.
+ Methods for using e.g. debtorrent are also available - see &apt-transport-debtorrent;.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
projects / apt.git / commitdiff
