Make `apt` shut up about "modernize-sources" in Trixie

nospam@example.com (Daniel Lange) — Sat, 03 May 2025 12:22:00 +0000

Apt in Trixie (Debian 13) has the annoying function to tell you "Notice: Some sources can be modernized. Run 'apt modernize-sources' to do so." ... every single time you run apt update. Not cool for logs and log monitoring.

And - of course - if you had the option to do this, you ... would have run the indicated apt modernize-sources command to convert your sources.list to "deb822 .sources format" files already. So an information message once or twice would have done.

Well, luckily you can help yourself:

apt -o APT::Get::Update::SourceListWarnings=false will keep apt shut up. This could go into an alias or your systems management tool / update script.

Alternatively add

# Keep apt shut about preferring the "deb822" sources file format
APT::Get::Update::SourceListWarnings "false";

to /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/10quellsourceformatwarnings .

This silences the notices about sources file formats (not only the deb822 one) system-wide. That way you can decide when you can / want to migrate to the new, more verbose, apt sources format yourself.

Update 06.06.2025

I looks like the powers that are have had mercy, apt 3.0.2 has migrated to Trixie two days ago and the Changelog contains:

Downgrade "modernize-sources" notice to audit

Install "kept back" updates on Ubuntu

nospam@example.com (Daniel Lange) — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 14:20:00 +0000

Canonical has implemented a staged roll-out for some Ubuntu package updates.

I find that rather annoying at times, e.g. when preparing the laptop for traveling.

So for my memory and for the benefit of others:

# disable the phased roll-out feature on this apt upgrade run
sudo apt -o "APT::Get::Always-Include-Phased-Updates=true" dist-upgrade

This can - for permanent use - be put into a config file, e.g. Gerrit Heim puts it into /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99-Phased-Updates [German]. Some other options around this staged roll-out feature are "documented" within a thread in the Ubuntu discourse forum.

Daniel Lange's blog (Entries tagged as apt)

Make `apt` shut up about "modernize-sources" in Trixie

Update 06.06.2025

Install "kept back" updates on Ubuntu