[SLUG] Help with apt-get pinning

[Michael Lake <Mike.Lake@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all

I have a server running Debian stable where perl is v5.6.1. I need 5.8 for installing a library application. 
I have never done/used mixed systems before or done apt pinning. Am I going to do this right?
The following procedure was worked out by reading a few googled web sites about apt pinning.
However I don't want to break perl on this machine.

Details follow:

I have setup one line in sources.list for testing, the rest are to stable:
# Testing
deb http://mirror.pacific.net.au/debian/ testing main contrib non-free

Have created a /etc/apt/preferences file:
Package: *
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 700

Package: perl
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 650

I have run apt-get update and apt-get upgrade ( the latter says)

$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Password:
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages have been kept back
 aide apache apache-common apache-ssl apt apt-utils base-config base-passwd bash binutils
 bsdmainutils bsdutils console-common console-tools cpio cpp cpp-2.95 cron debconf debianutils
 diff dpkg e2fsprogs ed ee fileutils findutils ftp gawk gcc gcc-2.95 gettext-base grep groff-base
 gzip hostname ifupdown info klogd less libbz2-1.0 libc6 libc6-dev libcap1 libdb2 libdb3
 libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libexpat1 libfreetype6 libgdbmg1 libgpmg1 libident libjpeg62
 libkrb53 libldap2 liblockfile1 libncurses5 libpam-modules libpam0g libpcre3 libpng2 libpopt0
 libreadline4 libsablot0c102 libssl-dev libssl0.9.6 libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2 libtemplate-perl
 libwrap0 libwrap0-dev libxml2 libxml2-dev libxslt1 login logrotate lynx mailx make man-db mawk
 mbr mount ncurses-bin net-tools netbase netkit-inetd netkit-ping openssl passwd perl perl-base
 perl-doc perl-modules procmail procps psmisc rsync screen sed shellutils slang1 ssh sudo
 sysklogd sysvinit t1lib1 tar tasksel tcpd telnet textutils unzip util-linux vim wget whiptail
 xfree86-common xlibs zlib1g zlib1g-dev 
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 121  not upgraded.

(have no idea when they'll be available)

Then to test I ran:
 apt-get --no-act -t testing install perl
and it responded with:

vserver:/etc/apt# apt-get --no-act -t testing install perl 
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
 libc6 libc6-dev libdb1-compat libdb4.2 libdbi-perl libgdbm3 libnet-daemon-perl libplrpc-perl
 libtemplate-perl libterm-readkey-perl libterm-readline-perl-perl linux-kernel-headers perl-base
 perl-modules 
The following packages will be REMOVED:
 perl-doc 
The following NEW packages will be installed:
 libdb1-compat libdb4.2 libgdbm3 libnet-daemon-perl libplrpc-perl libterm-readkey-perl
 libterm-readline-perl-perl linux-kernel-headers 
7 packages upgraded, 8 newly installed, 1 to remove and 113  not upgraded.
Remv perl-doc (5.8.4-8 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Inst libdb1-compat (2.1.3-7 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing) []
Inst libc6-dev (2.3.2.ds1-22 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing) []
Inst linux-kernel-headers (2.5.999-test7-bk-17 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing) []
Inst libc6 (2.3.2.ds1-22 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Conf libdb1-compat (2.1.3-7 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Conf libc6 (2.3.2.ds1-22 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Inst perl-modules (5.8.4-8 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing) []
Inst libdb4.2 (4.2.52-18 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing) []
Inst libgdbm3 (1.8.3-2 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing) []
Inst perl (5.8.4-8 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing) []
Inst libnet-daemon-perl (0.38-1 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing) []
Inst libplrpc-perl (0.2017-1 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing) []
Inst libdbi-perl (1.46-6 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing) []
Inst libtemplate-perl (2.14-1 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing) []
Inst perl-base (5.8.4-8 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Conf perl-base (5.8.4-8 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Inst libterm-readkey-perl (2.21-1.3 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Inst libterm-readline-perl-perl (1.0203-2 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Conf linux-kernel-headers (2.5.999-test7-bk-17 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Conf libc6-dev (2.3.2.ds1-22 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Conf libdb4.2 (4.2.52-18 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Conf libgdbm3 (1.8.3-2 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Conf perl (5.8.4-8 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Conf perl-modules (5.8.4-8 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Conf libnet-daemon-perl (0.38-1 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Conf libplrpc-perl (0.2017-1 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Conf libdbi-perl (1.46-6 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Conf libtemplate-perl (2.14-1 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Conf libterm-readkey-perl (2.21-1.3 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
Conf libterm-readline-perl-perl (1.0203-2 Debian:3.1r0/stable, Debian:testing)
$

So  ....... is the above likely to be fine???
Of course there are no guarantees.

Mike 
--
Mike Lake
Caver, Linux enthusiast and interested in anything technical.

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