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What if I want to decide for each individual package if it should get (a) upgraded to the latest version (b) upgraded to the latest version that the developer

What if I want to decide for each individual package if it should get (a) upgraded to the latest version (b) upgraded to the latest version that the developer considers API compatible (c) kept frozen Is there a way to do that with the debian package management system?

benley 11y ago
Generally if you want to use only debian packages, the answer is "stop wanting that". But, you can get a little closer if you run debian Stable and also include apt sources from testing and/or unstable, and do some clever things in /etc/apt/preferences to pin package priorities. It can get messy fast, though.
lorenzhs 11y ago
Not completely, but there are ways to achieve this partially. You can add multiple sources (say, stable and unstable) and set the priorities so that by default, stable is preferred. Then you can choose to install certain packages from unstable. However, since these frequently depend on newer libraries (e.g. libc6), it's hard to pull this off without upgrading most fundamental libraries to the version from unstable. In that case, you might just as well run unstable.
lmm 11y ago
You can override per-package, yes, if you really want to, and you can pin versions for C. As others have said, in practice a newer version of one package often depends on a newer version of another (the system will generally stop you rather than blindly installing incompatible things), and obviously you'll miss out on the testing of an integrated system that's the selling point of debian stable, but you can do it.
e12e 11y ago
If you're on Debian, an want to try and run testing/unstable, you probably want to install "apt-listbugs" -- which will warn you about open bugs in software you're installing/updating. Another option is to run Debian stable, and have testing and/or unstable chroot, managed via schroot: https://wiki.debian.org/Schroot https://wiki.debian.org/Schroot (that page and the manpages could use an update, but having a scroot backed by lvm, and set up to mount /home works well enough for running x11 apps (the MIT auth cookie is in $HOME)). I would recommend trying to keep things separate like that (or via something like docker/kvm/vagrant/etc) -- rather than trying to mix'n'match. You'll likely be the only one trying a particular combination of versions, and it's unlikely to be much fun.

benley 11y ago

Generally if you want to use only debian packages, the answer is "stop wanting that". But, you can get a little closer if you run debian Stable and also include apt sources from testing and/or unstable, and do some clever things in /etc/apt/preferences to pin package priorities. It can get messy fast, though.

lorenzhs 11y ago

Not completely, but there are ways to achieve this partially. You can add multiple sources (say, stable and unstable) and set the priorities so that by default, stable is preferred. Then you can choose to install certain packages from unstable. However, since these frequently depend on newer libraries (e.g. libc6), it's hard to pull this off without upgrading most fundamental libraries to the version from unstable. In that case, you might just as well run unstable.

lmm 11y ago

You can override per-package, yes, if you really want to, and you can pin versions for C. As others have said, in practice a newer version of one package often depends on a newer version of another (the system will generally stop you rather than blindly installing incompatible things), and obviously you'll miss out on the testing of an integrated system that's the selling point of debian stable, but you can do it.

e12e 11y ago

If you're on Debian, an want to try and run testing/unstable, you probably want to install "apt-listbugs" -- which will warn you about open bugs in software you're installing/updating. Another option is to run Debian stable, and have testing and/or unstable chroot, managed via schroot: https://wiki.debian.org/Schroot https://wiki.debian.org/Schroot (that page and the manpages could use an update, but having a scroot backed by lvm, and set up to mount /home works well enough for running x11 apps (the MIT auth cookie is in $HOME)). I would recommend trying to keep things separate like that (or via something like docker/kvm/vagrant/etc) -- rather than trying to mix'n'match. You'll likely be the only one trying a particular combination of versions, and it's unlikely to be much fun.