On Thu, Oct 18, 2007 at 11:04:31PM -0500, Gordon Pedersen wrote: > Running an etch system I nonetheless may want to install a testing > package or two. > > If I use pinning, I have a clue about how to go about it, and have > seen a debian wiki page about that. > > But I really could use a more general education on how to safely mix a > few testing pkgs into a stable system.
I doubt there is anything safe about a mixed system, but here is how I did it: 1. /etc/apt/apt.conf (create it if it doesn't exist): APT::Default-Release "stable"; Note: release names (lenny) will not work here, long standing (whishlist?) bug (#141495, #313041, ...) 2. In /etc/apt/sources.list copy the deb line for stable but put testing (or lenny) instead 3. Update and install your desired package with your preferred frontend: aptitude install -t lenny foobar > If there is a safe way in some cases I'd like to learn more about it. > (I doubt it's safe in all cases, based on my recent need to abandon > installing rubygems from testing into my etch system). > > Does anyone have suggested methods or reading? It's difficult to give a general guideline for "safe" installing of testing packages, but I would stay away from any case where the upgraded packages are more than a few (including dependencies). (Actually, for testing purposes, I managed to install an unstable kernel including udev on a sarge machine (when sarge was still stable), but YMMV) Regards, Andrei -- If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. (Albert Einstein)
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