On Thu, Jul 19, 2018 at 10:43:51AM -0600, Rick Macdonald wrote: > I'm going to pose my question here at the top in case it can be answered > without wading through all the details that follow: > > Now that I have removed unstable form sources.list and preferences > (pinning), won't my packages from unstable eventually be upgraded from > stable as the stable versions become newer than the unstable packages that I > currently have installed?
This process will take years. Stable is stable. Any given package in Stretch, you should expect it not to change versions until the next stable release, Buster. (but don't depend on that: there are interim security updates to an unpredictable variety of packages) > Or might I hit some dependency problems along the > way? Should I instead do the downgrades now by pinning stable to priority > 1001 (with I'm guessing is a one-time thing to do, and then remove the > pinning)? It depends on how many unstable packages you have. Let's read the rest of your message. > Here is the background: > > I upgraded to stretch back in November or so, and a couple of programs that > installed OK didn't actually run properly. I grabbed them from unstable and > all was good again. > > Today I removed all references to unstable in sources.list, and the pinning > for unstable that I had in preferences. > > Prior to removing unstable from sources.list and preferences, "apt-show > versions | grep unstable" showed, for example: > > deluge:all/unstable 1.3.15-2 uptodate > > "unstable" is gone from show-versions so I grep for "newer" instead. Now it > shows: > > deluge:all 1.3.15-2 newer than version in archive > > Here is the full list of "newer" files: > > # apt-show-versions |grep newer > deluge:all 1.3.15-2 newer than version in archive > deluge-common:all 1.3.15-2 newer than version in archive > deluge-console:all 1.3.15-2 newer than version in archive > deluge-gtk:all 1.3.15-2 newer than version in archive > deluge-web:all 1.3.15-2 newer than version in archive > deluged:all 1.3.15-2 newer than version in archive > fontconfig-config:all 2.13.0-5 newer than version in archive > libbluray1:amd64 2:0.7.0-dmo1 newer than version in archive > libboost-chrono1.62.0:amd64 1.62.0+dfsg-7 newer than version in archive > libboost-python1.62.0:amd64 1.62.0+dfsg-7 newer than version in archive > libboost-random1.62.0:amd64 1.62.0+dfsg-7 newer than version in archive > libfontconfig1:amd64 2.13.0-5 newer than version in archive > libfontconfig1:i386 2.13.0-5 newer than version in archive > libnss3:amd64 2:3.38-1 newer than version in archive > libnss3:i386 2:3.38-1 newer than version in archive > libtorrent-rasterbar9:amd64 1.1.5-1+b1 newer than version in archive > python-attr:all 17.4.0-2 newer than version in archive > python-click:all 6.7-5 newer than version in archive > python-libtorrent:amd64 1.1.5-1+b1 newer than version in archive > python-serial:all 3.4-3 newer than version in archive > python-twisted-bin:amd64 18.4.0-2 newer than version in archive > python-twisted-core:all 18.4.0-2 newer than version in archive > python-zope.interface:amd64 4.3.2-1+b2 newer than version in archive > rtmpdump:amd64 2:201412272202-git-1 newer than version in archive > yasm:amd64 1.3.0-dmo2 newer than version in archive This isn't absolutely awful; you can recover from this. > Here is the list of downgrades if I pin stable to 1001: > > The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer > required: > fonts-stix libevent-2.1-6 libhunspell-1.6-0 libjsoncpp1 libvpx5 > python-automat python-hyperlink > Use 'apt autoremove' to remove them. > The following packages will be REMOVED: > firefox > The following NEW packages will be installed: > python-twisted-web > The following packages will be DOWNGRADED: > deluge deluge-common deluge-console deluge-gtk deluge-web deluged > fontconfig-config libbluray1 libboost-chrono1.62.0 libboost-python1.62.0 > libboost-random1.62.0 libfontconfig1 > libfontconfig1:i386 libnss3 libnss3:i386 libtorrent-rasterbar9 python-attr > python-click python-libtorrent python-serial python-twisted-bin > python-twisted-core python-zope.interface > rtmpdump yasm > 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 25 downgraded, 1 to remove and 0 not > upgraded. > > It shows the same 25 packages as the list of "newer" above, but I don't like > that it wants to remove firefox. I have version 58.0.1 installed, and to be > honest I can't figure out where this version came from. I do have some > backports installed but that's not where firefox came from: > > # dpkg-query -W | grep '~bpo' > libcec3v4:amd64 3.1.0+dfsg1-4~bpo8+2 > libcrossguid0v4:amd64 0.0+git200150803-2~bpo8+1 > libmysqlclient18:i386 5.6.30-1~bpo8+1 > libp8-platform2v4:amd64 2.0.1+dfsg1-1~bpo8+1 > libx265-79:amd64 1.9-3~bpo8+1 > remmina 1.2.0-rcgit.24-2~bpo9+1 > remmina-common 1.2.0-rcgit.24-2~bpo9+1 > remmina-plugin-rdp:amd64 1.2.0-rcgit.24-2~bpo9+1 > remmina-plugin-vnc:amd64 1.2.0-rcgit.24-2~bpo9+1 > > My question is: If I just leave it be, won't the packages eventually be > upgraded from stable as the stable versions become newer than the unstable > packages that I currently have installed? Or might I hit some dependency > problems along the way? Should I instead do the downgrades now by pinning > stable to priority 1001 (with I'm guessing is a one-time thing to do, and > then remove the pinning)? I would do the downgrades. Then do an "apt-get clean", and after that, re-install firefox-esr. If you want an up-to-date firefox, install it directly from Mozilla in /opt/firefox. When you have a limited requirement for unstable or testing packages, you can use pinning to get just those packages and their dependencies. That's much more manageable than just blasting off in the direction of unstable. -dsr-
