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<!doctype refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V3.1//EN" [
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<!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent">
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<refentrytitle>sources.list</>
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<!-- Man page title -->
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<refname>sources.list</>
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<refpurpose>Package resource list for APT</>
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<RefSect1><Title>Description</>
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The package resource list is used to locate archives of the package
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distribution system in use on the system. At this time, this manual page
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documents only the packaging system used by the Debian GNU/Linux system.
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This control file is located in <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</>
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The source list is designed to support any number of active sources and a
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variety of source media. The file lists one source per line, with the
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most preferred source listed first. The format of each line is:
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<literal/type uri args/. The first item, <literal/type/, determines the
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format for <literal/args/. <literal/uri/ is a Universal Resource Identifier
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(URI), which is a superset of the more specific and well-known Universal
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Resource Locator, or URL. The rest of the line can be marked as a comment
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<RefSect1><Title>The deb and deb-src types</>
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The <literal/deb/ type describes a typical two-level Debian archive,
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<filename>distribution/component</>. Typically, <literal/distribution/ is
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generally one of <literal/stable/, <literal/unstable/, or
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<literal/frozen/, while component is one of <literal/main/,
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<literal/contrib/, <literal/non-free/, or <literal/non-us/. The
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<literal/deb-src/ type describes a debian distribution's source code in
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the same form as the <literal/deb/ type. A <literal/deb-src/ line is
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required to fetch source indexes.
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The format for a <filename/sources.list/ entry using the <literal/deb/
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and <literal/deb-src/ types are:
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<literallayout>deb uri distribution [component1] [componenent2] [...]</literallayout>
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The URI for the <literal/deb/ type must specify the base of the Debian
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distribution, from which APT will find the information it needs.
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<literal/distribution/ can specify an exact path, in which case the
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components must be omitted and <literal/distribution/ must end with a
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slash (/). This is useful for when only a particular sub-section of the
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archive denoted by the URI is of interest. If <literal/distribution/ does
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not specify an exact path, at least one <literal/component/ must be present.
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<literal/distribution/ may also contain a variable, <literal/$(ARCH)/,
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which expands to the Debian architecture (i386, m68k, powerpc, ...)
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used on the system. This permits archiecture-independent
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<filename/sources.list/ files to be used. In general this is only of
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interest when specifying an exact path, <literal/APT/ will automatically
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generate a URI with the current architecture otherwise.
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Since only one distribution can be specified per line it may be necessary
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to have multiple lines for the same URI, if a subset of all available
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distributions or components at that location is desired.
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APT will sort the URI list after it has generated a complete set
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internally, and will collapse multiple references to the same Internet
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host, for instance, into a single connection, so that it does not
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inefficiently establish an FTP connection, close it, do something else,
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and then re-establish a connection to that same host. This feature is
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useful for accessing busy FTP sites with limits on the number of
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simultaneous anonymous users. bf(APT) also parallizes connections to
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different hosts to more effectively deal with sites with low bandwidth.
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It is important to list sources in order of preference, with the most
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preferred source listed first. Typically this will result in sorting
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by speed from fastest to slowest (CD-ROM followed by hosts on a local
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network, followed by distant Internet hosts, for example).
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deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
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deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian dists/stable-updates/
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<RefSect1><title>URI specification</title>
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The currently recognized URI types are cdrom, file, http, and ftp.
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<VarListEntry><term>file</term>
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The file scheme allows an arbitrary directory in the file system to be
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considered an archive. This is useful for NFS mounts and local mirrors or
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<VarListEntry><term>cdrom</term>
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The cdrom scheme allows APT to use a local CDROM drive with media
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swapping. Use the &apt-cdrom; program to create cdrom entries in the
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<VarListEntry><term>http</term>
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The http scheme specifies an HTTP server for the archive. If an environment
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variable <EnVar/http_proxy/ is set with the format
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http://server:port/, the proxy server specified in
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<EnVar/http_proxy/ will be used. Users of authenticated HTTP/1.1 proxies
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may use a string of the format http://user:pass@server:port/
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Note that this is an insecure method of authentication.
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<VarListEntry><term>ftp</term>
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The ftp scheme specifies an FTP server for the archive. APT's FTP behavior
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is highly configurable; for more information see the
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&apt-conf; manual page. Please note that a ftp proxy can be specified
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by using the <EnVar/ftp_proxy/ environment variable. It is possible to
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specify a http proxy (http proxy servers often understand ftp urls) using
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this method and ONLY this method. ftp proxies using http specified in the
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configuration file will be ignored.
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<VarListEntry><term>copy</term>
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The copy scheme is identical to the file scheme except that packages are
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copied into the cache directory instead of used directly at their location.
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This is useful for people using a zip disk to copy files around with APT.
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<VarListEntry><term>rsh</term><term>ssh</term>
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The rsh/ssh method method invokes rsh/ssh to connect to a remote host
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as a given user and access the files. No password authentication is
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possible, prior arrangements with RSA keys or rhosts must have been made.
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Access to files on the remote uses standard <command/find/ and <command/dd/
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commands to perform the file transfers from the remote.
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<RefSect1><title>Examples</title>
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Uses the archive stored locally (or NFS mounted) at /home/jason/debian
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for stable/main, stable/contrib, and stable/non-free.
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<literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian stable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
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As above, except this uses the unstable (development) distribution.
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<literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
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Source line for the above
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<literallayout>deb-src file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
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Uses HTTP to access the archive at archive.debian.org, and uses only the
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<literallayout>deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive hamm main</literallayout>
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Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
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directory, and uses only the stable/contrib area.
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<literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian stable contrib</literallayout>
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Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
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directory, and uses only the unstable/contrib area. If this line appears as
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well as the one in the previous example in <filename/sources.list/,
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a single FTP session will be used for both resource lines.
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<literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable contrib</literallayout>
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Uses HTTP to access the archive at nonus.debian.org, under the debian-non-US
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<literallayout>deb http://nonus.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free</literallayout>
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Uses HTTP to access the archive at nonus.debian.org, under the
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debian-non-US directory, and uses only files found under
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<filename>unstable/binary-i386</> on i386 machines,
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<filename>unstable/binary-m68k</> on m68k, and so
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forth for other supported architectures. [Note this example only
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illustrates how to use the substitution variable; non-us is no longer
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structured like this]
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<literallayout>deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/binary-$(ARCH)/</literallayout>
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<RefSect1><Title>See Also</>
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&apt-cache; &apt-conf;
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