1
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
2
<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
3
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" [
5
<!ENTITY % aptent SYSTEM "apt.ent">
13
&apt-author.jgunthorpe;
17
<!-- The last update date -->
18
<date>29 February 2004</date>
22
<refentrytitle>sources.list</refentrytitle>
23
<manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
26
<!-- Man page title -->
28
<refname>sources.list</refname>
29
<refpurpose>Package resource list for APT</refpurpose>
32
<refsect1><title>Description</title>
33
<para>The package resource list is used to locate archives of the package
34
distribution system in use on the system. At this time, this manual page
35
documents only the packaging system used by the Debian GNU/Linux system.
36
This control file is located in <filename>/etc/apt/sources.list</filename></para>
38
<para>The source list is designed to support any number of active sources and a
39
variety of source media. The file lists one source per line, with the
40
most preferred source listed first. The format of each line is:
41
<literal>type uri args</literal> The first item, <literal>type</literal>
42
determines the format for <literal>args</literal> <literal>uri</literal> is
43
a Universal Resource Identifier
44
(URI), which is a superset of the more specific and well-known Universal
45
Resource Locator, or URL. The rest of the line can be marked as a comment
49
<refsect1><title>The deb and deb-src types</title>
50
<para>The <literal>deb</literal> type describes a typical two-level Debian
51
archive, <filename>distribution/component</filename>. Typically,
52
<literal>distribution</literal> is generally one of
53
<literal>stable</literal> <literal>unstable</literal> or
54
<literal>testing</literal> while component is one of <literal>main</literal>
55
<literal>contrib</literal> <literal>non-free</literal> or
56
<literal>non-us</literal> The
57
<literal>deb-src</literal> type describes a debian distribution's source
58
code in the same form as the <literal>deb</literal> type.
59
A <literal>deb-src</literal> line is required to fetch source indexes.</para>
62
<para>The format for a <filename>sources.list</filename> entry using the
63
<literal>deb</literal> and <literal>deb-src</literal> types are:</para>
65
<literallayout>deb uri distribution [component1] [component2] [...]</literallayout>
67
<para>The URI for the <literal>deb</literal> type must specify the base of the
68
Debian distribution, from which APT will find the information it needs.
69
<literal>distribution</literal> can specify an exact path, in which case the
70
components must be omitted and <literal>distribution</literal> must end with
71
a slash (/). This is useful for when only a particular sub-section of the
72
archive denoted by the URI is of interest.
73
If <literal>distribution</literal> does not specify an exact path, at least
74
one <literal>component</literal> must be present.</para>
76
<para><literal>distribution</literal> may also contain a variable,
77
<literal>$(ARCH)</literal>
78
which expands to the Debian architecture (i386, m68k, powerpc, ...)
79
used on the system. This permits architecture-independent
80
<filename>sources.list</filename> files to be used. In general this is only
81
of interest when specifying an exact path, <literal>APT</literal> will
82
automatically generate a URI with the current architecture otherwise.</para>
84
<para>Since only one distribution can be specified per line it may be necessary
85
to have multiple lines for the same URI, if a subset of all available
86
distributions or components at that location is desired.
87
APT will sort the URI list after it has generated a complete set
88
internally, and will collapse multiple references to the same Internet
89
host, for instance, into a single connection, so that it does not
90
inefficiently establish an FTP connection, close it, do something else,
91
and then re-establish a connection to that same host. This feature is
92
useful for accessing busy FTP sites with limits on the number of
93
simultaneous anonymous users. APT also parallelizes connections to
94
different hosts to more effectively deal with sites with low bandwidth.</para>
96
<para>It is important to list sources in order of preference, with the most
97
preferred source listed first. Typically this will result in sorting
98
by speed from fastest to slowest (CD-ROM followed by hosts on a local
99
network, followed by distant Internet hosts, for example).</para>
101
<para>Some examples:</para>
103
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
104
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian dists/stable-updates/
109
<refsect1><title>URI specification</title>
111
<para>The currently recognized URI types are cdrom, file, http, and ftp.
113
<varlistentry><term>file</term>
115
The file scheme allows an arbitrary directory in the file system to be
116
considered an archive. This is useful for NFS mounts and local mirrors or
117
archives.</para></listitem>
120
<varlistentry><term>cdrom</term>
122
The cdrom scheme allows APT to use a local CDROM drive with media
123
swapping. Use the &apt-cdrom; program to create cdrom entries in the
124
source list.</para></listitem>
127
<varlistentry><term>http</term>
129
The http scheme specifies an HTTP server for the archive. If an environment
130
variable <envar>http_proxy</envar> is set with the format
131
http://server:port/, the proxy server specified in
132
<envar>http_proxy</envar> will be used. Users of authenticated
133
HTTP/1.1 proxies may use a string of the format
134
http://user:pass@server:port/
135
Note that this is an insecure method of authentication.</para></listitem>
138
<varlistentry><term>ftp</term>
140
The ftp scheme specifies an FTP server for the archive. APT's FTP behavior
141
is highly configurable; for more information see the
142
&apt-conf; manual page. Please note that a ftp proxy can be specified
143
by using the <envar>ftp_proxy</envar> environment variable. It is possible
144
to specify a http proxy (http proxy servers often understand ftp urls)
145
using this method and ONLY this method. ftp proxies using http specified in
146
the configuration file will be ignored.</para></listitem>
149
<varlistentry><term>copy</term>
151
The copy scheme is identical to the file scheme except that packages are
152
copied into the cache directory instead of used directly at their location.
153
This is useful for people using a zip disk to copy files around with APT.</para></listitem>
156
<varlistentry><term>rsh</term><term>ssh</term>
158
The rsh/ssh method invokes rsh/ssh to connect to a remote host
159
as a given user and access the files. No password authentication is
160
possible, prior arrangements with RSA keys or rhosts must have been made.
161
Access to files on the remote uses standard <command>find</command> and
162
<command>dd</command>
163
commands to perform the file transfers from the remote.</para></listitem>
169
<refsect1><title>Examples</title>
170
<para>Uses the archive stored locally (or NFS mounted) at /home/jason/debian
171
for stable/main, stable/contrib, and stable/non-free.</para>
172
<literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian stable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
174
<para>As above, except this uses the unstable (development) distribution.</para>
175
<literallayout>deb file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
177
<para>Source line for the above</para>
178
<literallayout>deb-src file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free</literallayout>
180
<para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at archive.debian.org, and uses only
181
the hamm/main area.</para>
182
<literallayout>deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive hamm main</literallayout>
184
<para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
185
directory, and uses only the stable/contrib area.</para>
186
<literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian stable contrib</literallayout>
188
<para>Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
189
directory, and uses only the unstable/contrib area. If this line appears as
190
well as the one in the previous example in <filename>sources.list</filename>.
191
a single FTP session will be used for both resource lines.</para>
192
<literallayout>deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable contrib</literallayout>
194
<para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at nonus.debian.org, under the
195
debian-non-US directory.</para>
196
<literallayout>deb http://nonus.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free</literallayout>
198
<para>Uses HTTP to access the archive at nonus.debian.org, under the
199
debian-non-US directory, and uses only files found under
200
<filename>unstable/binary-i3866</filename> on i386 machines,
201
<filename>unstable/binary-m68k</filename> on m68k, and so
202
forth for other supported architectures. [Note this example only
203
illustrates how to use the substitution variable; non-us is no longer
204
structured like this]
205
<literallayout>deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/binary-$(ARCH)/</literallayout>
209
<refsect1><title>See Also</title>
210
<para>&apt-cache; &apt-conf;
added
removed
doc/sources.list.5.xml
