About backports
Backports are recompiled packages from testing (mostly) and unstable (in a few cases only, e.g. security updates) in a stable environment so that they will run without new libraries (whenever it is possible) on a Debian stable distribution
Backports cannot be tested as extensively as Debian stable, and backports are provided on an as-is basis, with risk of incompatibilities with other components in Debian stable. Use with care!
It is therefore recommended to select single backported packages that fit your needs, and not use all available backports.
Add backports to your sources.list
- Add this line
deb http://backports.debian.org/debian-backports squeeze-backports main
to your sources.list (or add a new file to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/) - Run apt-get update
Install a package from backports
All backports are deactivated by default (i.e. the packages are pinned to 100 by using ButAutomaticUpgrades: yes in the Release files. If you want to install something from backports run:
apt-get -t squeeze-backports install "package"
of course you can use aptitude as well:
aptitude -t squeeze-backports install "package"
Subscribe to the security announce mailinglist
If you want to get announcements about security updates on backports.debian.org subscribe to the debian-backports-announce mailinglist.
Report Bugs
Please report bugs that you found in the packages to the backports mailinglist and NOT to the Debian BTS!