How to use the testing packages with Debian

If you need to install newer versions of apps or libraries on a Debian system you can make sure of their testing package list. It is not recommended to run testing packages on production servers, but it might be a better alternative than installing from source.

First edit your "/etc/apt/sources.list" file to contain the lines:

# etch/testing
deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free

Then you will need to update apt-get with the new packages available with:

apt-get update

Last updated: 03/10/2006