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You are running Debian stable because you prefer the stable Debian tree. It runs great, there is just one problem: The software is a little bit outdated compared to other distributions. That is where backports come in.
Backports are recompiled packages from testing (mostly) and unstable (in a few cases only, e.g. security updates), so they will run without new libraries (wherever it is possible) on a stable Debian distribution. It is recommended to pick out single backports which fit your needs, and not to use all backports available.
This article illustrates how to:
- configure your stable system to use the Backports repository
- find a specific backport
- install packages from the repository
- have your backports upgraded automatically
For official instructions on how to use Debian Backports, visit https://backports.debian.org/Instructions/.
If you want to create a non-official backport of a package you need, have a look at SimpleBackportCreation.
If you want to build a backport with the intent of sharing it with others within Debian, see the BuildingFormalBackports page.
Contents
Configuring your stable system
In the following example, we will use bookworm as the current codename for Debian Stable. Please adjust the codename accordingly if you are using a different version of Debian.
If you're setting up backports for a system that isn't running the latest version of Debian (e.g. a bullseye system while the latest is bookworm) then you may also want to add a line for the "sloppy" backports section. Currently that is bullseye-backports-sloppy, but after the release of trixie, you'll want to add a line for bookworm-backports-sloppy. Be warned, sloppy backports ruin the upgrade path between versions, but will contain newer versions of packages than in the regular backports.
Adding the repository
Using Synaptic
- Open Synaptic
Go to "Settings -> Repositories":
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In the following dialog box, select the tab "Third-Party Software" and click on the "Add..." button in the lower left corner:
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Copy the repository below, then hit the "Add Source" button:
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports main contrib non-free
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Finally, hit the "Reload" button in Synaptic's main panel to update the repository information on your system.
Using the command line
As root, or using sudo, open your sources.list file (Nano is the recommended editor for new users):
# apt edit-sources
Append the following line to the bottom of the file:
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
If you are a free software enthusiast, you might want to remove the contrib, non-free and non-free-firmware sections. (See Debian package management for details.)
Now that you have added the repository, update APT's cache to include the backports in the list of available packages:
# apt update
Done.
Using backports
Finding backports
There are a several different ways to find out if a backport of a certain Debian package exists. A pretty convenient one is using Debian's web-based package search (packages.debian.org).
Backported versions of packages will also appear when searching their names with the apt search command, or one can view all available versions of a package by running:
apt show package-name -a
Replacing package-name with the name of the package you wish to view.
Installing backports on the command line
The backports repository is low-priority by default. So, if you want to install a backported package, you will have to state that explicitly.
For example:
# apt install cockpit/bookworm-backports
This will attempt to install Cockpit from bookworm-backports, preferring dependencies from stable. Sometimes backports depend on other backports, and it is necessary to specify these dependencies aswell.
(Dependency is just a stand in for a theoretical backport dependency)
# apt install cockpit/bookworm-backports dependency/bookworm-backports
Another option is to use the -t target release flag, but this can sometimes lead to unnecessarily downloading dependencies from backports.
# apt -t bookworm-backports install cockpit
The -t option here specifies bookworm-backports as the target release. This would install a newer version of Cockpit and all its reverse dependencies from bookworm-backports instead of the older one from Debian stable release.
FAQ
Reporting bugs
Because of limitations in the Debian Bug Tracking System, any bugs relevant to backported packages still have to be reported to the debian-backports list.
Migrate from backports.org to backports.debian.org
On Sept. 5th, 2010, Backports became an official service (see announcement).
Systems configured to use backports.org should be reconfigured to use the new repository/URL (in /etc/apt/sources.list*), since backports.org service is already stopped.
replace backports.org with http://deb.debian.org/debian in /etc/apt/sources.list*.
run apt update
- remove the backports.org key from your keyring. Depending how you installed it...
apt purge debian-backports-keyring
orapt-key del 16BA136C
List installed backports
Out of all installed packages, which ones are backports? One way to tell is by version: all backports are tagged with ~bpo, for example, 24.5+1-6~bpo8+1, so at the command line you might say:
dpkg-query -W | grep '~bpo'
External links
backports.debian.org for more information
Article about backports on cliss21.com: The article contains information on how to backport packages as well as some step-by-step simple examples to start with.
Diffs between bullseye-backports and bookworm: A useful comparison of package versions in bullseye-backports and bookworm.