Linux Software Repositories

Testing Repository

Many users have chosen to automatically update their desktop with whatever versions of their Google applications are in the Google Linux Software Repositories. That's great, but it begs the question: how can Google make a Linux application available for beta testing without pushing it on those users?

The answer is the Testing Repository. Early adopters who like living dangerously can point their package manager at the Testing Repository in addition to the normal repository. Please remember, though, that these are not finished applications, and you should expect to run into an issue or two. When you do, please report the problem in the product's discussion group (see below for a link).

Here's what is currently in the Testing Repository:

Using the Testing Repository

Using the Testing Repository is just like using the regular Google repositories; just replace the word "stable" with "testing" in the repository path.

Note: The Testing Repository is meant to supplement the regular Google repositories. If you want access to all the available software, you must include both the testing and regular repositories in your package manager configuration.

For instance, to configure Apt, you would add the following lines to your configuration file:

# Google repository
deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free

# Google testing repository
deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ testing non-free

and to configure YUM, you would add the following:

[google]
name=Google - i386
baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/rpm/stable/i386
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

[google-testing]
name=Google Testing - i386
baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/rpm/testing/i386
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

Note that you also need to follow the other steps specified in the regular repository configuration guides, such as importing the Google package signing key.

Then, for example, you can install the latest test version of Picasa by doing: 
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install picasa