dpkg-hold (was Re: WARNING about XFree86!)

[Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au>]

On 19 Oct 1998, Steve Dunham wrote:

> Replace "install" with "hold" in the "/var/lib/dpkg/status" file, or
> save the following perl script as "dpkg-hold", make it executable and
> do:
> 
>   dpkg-hold xbase xlib6g
> 
> (Apologies to those whose perl is more elegant than mine.)

[ neat perl script deleted ]

here's a simpler shell version, which should keep on working even if the
format of the files in /var/lib/dpkg ever changes:

---cut here---
#! /bin/bash

# dpkg-hold  --  command line tool to flag package(s) as held.
#
# by Craig Sanders, 1998-10-26.  This script is hereby placed into the 
# public domain.
#
# BUGS: this script has absolutely no error checking.  this is not good.

if [ -z "$@" ] ; then
	echo "Usage:"
	echo "      dpkg-hold <package...>"
	exit 1
fi

for i in $@ ; do
	echo "$i	hold"
done | dpkg --set-selections
---cut here---

this script could be easily generalised to do install and de-install
as well as hold....

craig

--
craig sanders