Debian

  • Why is a package installed: aptitude why $package
  • What versions could be / are installed: apt-cache policy $package
  • List contents of package: dpkg -L $package
  • List contents of package on disk: dpkg-deb --contents $deb
  • Extract contents of package on disk: dpkg-deb --raw-extract $deb t'$dir
  • Leave out a file from a package: dpkg-divert --divert /etc/init/filebeat.conf --rename /etc/init/filebeat.disabled
  • Install a specific version of a package: apt-get install $package=$version

How to Pull Some Packages From Sid

(h/t Ryan Voots)

sources.list:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free

#deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ sid main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ sid main contrib non-free
deb http://repo.varnish-cache.org/debian/ jessie varnish-3.0

/etc/apt/preferences:

package: *
pin: release n=jessie
pin-Priority: 1000

package: *
pin: release n=jessie-updates
pin-Priority: 1001

package: *
pin: release n=jessie-backports
pin-Priority: 1002

package: *
pin: release n=sid
pin-Priority: 100

/etc/apt/preferences.d/git:

package: git git-man git-daemon-run gitweb git-doc git-el git-email git-gui gitk git-arch git-cvs git-mediawiki git-svn
pin: release n=sid
pin-Priority: 1010