SOURCES.LIST(5) 					       SOURCES.LIST(5)



NAME
       sources.list - Package resource list for APT

DESCRIPTION
       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 GNU/Linux
       system. This control file is located in /etc/apt/sources.list

       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: type
       uri args The first item, type determines the format for args uri 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 #.

SOURCES.LIST.D
       The /etc/apt/sources.list.d directory provides a way to add
       sources.list entries in seperate files that end with sources.list file.

THE DEB AND DEB-SRC TYPES
       The deb type describes a typical two-level Debian archive,
       distribution/component. Typically, distribution is generally one of
       stable unstable or testing while component is one of main contrib
       non-free or non-us The deb-src type describes a debian distributions
       source code in the same form as the deb type. A deb-src line is
       required to fetch source indexes.

       The format for a sources.list entry using the deb and deb-src types
       are:

	  deb uri distribution [component1] [component2] [...]

       The URI for the deb type must specify the base of the Debian
       distribution, from which APT will find the information it needs.
       distribution can specify an exact path, in which case the components
       must be omitted and distribution must end with a slash (/). This is
       useful for when only a particular sub-section of the archive denoted by
       the URI is of interest. If distribution does not specify an exact path,
       at least one component must be present.

       distribution may also contain a variable, $(ARCH) which expands to the
       Debian architecture (i386, m68k, powerpc, ...) used on the system. This
       permits architecture-independent sources.list files to be used. In
       general this is only of interest when specifying an exact path, APT
       will automatically generate a URI with the current architecture
       otherwise.

       Since only one distribution can be specified per line it may be
       necessary to have multiple lines for the same URI, if a subset of all
       available distributions or components at that location is desired. APT
       will sort the URI list after it has generated a complete set
       internally, and will collapse multiple references to the same Internet
       host, for instance, into a single connection, so that it does not
       inefficiently establish an FTP connection, close it, do something else,
       and then re-establish a connection to that same host. This feature is
       useful for accessing busy FTP sites with limits on the number of
       simultaneous anonymous users. APT also parallelizes connections to
       different hosts to more effectively deal with sites with low bandwidth.

       It is important to list sources in order of preference, with the most
       preferred source listed first. Typically this will result in sorting by
       speed from fastest to slowest (CD-ROM followed by hosts on a local
       network, followed by distant Internet hosts, for example).

       Some examples:

	  deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
	  deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian dists/stable-updates/


URI SPECIFICATION
       The currently recognized URI types are cdrom, file, http, and ftp.

       file
	  The file scheme allows an arbitrary directory in the file system to
	  be considered an archive. This is useful for NFS mounts and local
	  mirrors or archives.

       cdrom
	  The cdrom scheme allows APT to use a local CDROM drive with media
	  swapping. Use the apt-cdrom(8) program to create cdrom entries in
	  the source list.

       http
	  The http scheme specifies an HTTP server for the archive. If an
	  environment variable http_proxy is set with the format
	  http://server:port/, the proxy server specified in http_proxy will
	  be used. Users of authenticated HTTP/1.1 proxies may use a string of
	  the format http://user:pass@server:port/ Note that this is an
	  insecure method of authentication.

       ftp
	  The ftp scheme specifies an FTP server for the archive. APTs FTP
	  behavior is highly configurable; for more information see the
	  apt.conf(5) manual page. Please note that a ftp proxy can be
	  specified by using the ftp_proxy 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 the configuration file will be
	  ignored.

       copy
	  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.

       rsh, ssh
	  The rsh/ssh method invokes rsh/ssh to connect to a remote host as a
	  given user and access the files. No password authentication is
	  possible, prior arrangements with RSA keys or rhosts must have been
	  made. Access to files on the remote uses standard find and dd
	  commands to perform the file transfers from the remote.

EXAMPLES
       Uses the archive stored locally (or NFS mounted) at /home/jason/debian
       for stable/main, stable/contrib, and stable/non-free.

	  deb file:/home/jason/debian stable main contrib non-free

       As above, except this uses the unstable (development) distribution.

	  deb file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free

       Source line for the above

	  deb-src file:/home/jason/debian unstable main contrib non-free

       Uses HTTP to access the archive at archive.debian.org, and uses only
       the hamm/main area.

	  deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-archive hamm main

       Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
       directory, and uses only the stable/contrib area.

	  deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian stable contrib

       Uses FTP to access the archive at ftp.debian.org, under the debian
       directory, and uses only the unstable/contrib area. If this line
       appears as well as the one in the previous example in sources.list. a
       single FTP session will be used for both resource lines.

	  deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable contrib

       Uses HTTP to access the archive at nonus.debian.org, under the
       debian-non-US directory.

	  deb http://nonus.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free

       Uses HTTP to access the archive at nonus.debian.org, under the
       debian-non-US directory, and uses only files found under
       unstable/binary-i386 on i386 machines, unstable/binary-m68k on m68k,
       and so forth for other supported architectures. [Note this example only
       illustrates how to use the substitution variable; non-us is no longer
       structured like this]

	  deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian-non-US unstable/binary-$(ARCH)/


SEE ALSO
       apt-cache(8) apt.conf(5)

BUGS
       [1]APT bug page. If you wish to report a bug in APT, please see
       /usr/share/doc/debian/bug-reporting.txt or the reportbug(1) command.

AUTHORS
       Jason Gunthorpe
	  Author.

       APT team
	  Author.

REFERENCES
       1. APT bug page
	  http://bugs.debian.org/src:apt



Linux			       29 February 2004 	       SOURCES.LIST(5)