2 - Raspberry PI Community Projects

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/etc/apt/sources.list.d/
*.list files
If many package sources are referenced, it can be useful to split them
in multiple files. Each part is then stored in /etc/apt/sources.list.
d/filename.list (see sidebar “Directories ending in .d” (page 110)).
QUICK LOOK
apt-spy
This soware tests the download speed from several Debian mirrors and generates
a sources.list file which points to the the fastest mirror.
The mirror selected during installation is generally suitable since its selection
is based on the country. However, if the download is a lile slow, or aer a
move, you can try running the application available in the apt-spy package.
The sources.list file contains several other entry types: some describe the Debian CD-ROMs
you have. Contrary to other entries, a CD-ROM is not always available since it has to be inserted
into the drive and since only one disc can be read at a time — consequently, these sources are
managed in a slightly different way. These entries need to be added with the apt-cdrom program,
usually executed with the add parameter. The latter will then request the disc to be
inserted in the drive and will browse its contents looking for Packages files. It will use these
files to update its database of available packages (this is usually done by the aptitude update
command). From then on, APT can require the disc to be inserted if it needs one of its packages.
6.1.1. Other Available Official Repositories
6.1.1.1. Stable Updates
Once published, the Stable distribution is only updated about once every 2 months in order to
integrate the security updates published on security.debian.org.
This minor release can also include updates for packages that have to evolve over time... like
spamassassin's spam detection rules, clamav's virus database, or the daylight-saving rules of all
timezones (tzdata).
All those updates are prepared in a repository known as proposed-updates. Anyone can use
this repository to test those updates before their official publication. The extract below uses the
squeeze-proposed-updates alias which is both more explicit and more consistent since lennyproposed-updates
also exists (for the Oldstable updates):
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian squeeze-proposed-updates main contrib non-
➥ free
Once ready, the most important updates — those which cannot wait for the next minor Debian
release — are published in the stable-updates repository (which most systems are expected to
use):
deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian stable-updates main contrib non-free
104 The Debian Administrator's Handbook