Forcing multiple package downgrades.

["Douglas Hoen" <dhoen@myrealbox.com>]

I want to downgrade an arbitrary set of packages to lower versions, en masse _without manual intervention_. I have a repository containing a complete set of packages that I want to install onto any system, forcing downgrades if necessary. (All dependent packages are contained in the repository.) 

Is there some way to do this? For instance, is there some way to instruct the policy engine when doing a dist-upgrade to perform automatic downgrades of particular packages by using pin priorities?

BTW, I have tried using various apt-get install and dist-upgrade combinations without success. For instance, I have tried to make a meta-package listing the specific verstions that I want, but "apt-get install <meta-package>" fails with an error listing unmet dependencies for versions that require downgrading. (The actual error message is: "Sorry, but the following packages have unmet dependencies: <meta-package>: Depends: <sub-package> (= <version-listed-in-meta>) but <installed-newer-version> is to be installed".)

Thanks very much in advance for any advice,
Doug
___________________
Douglas Hoen
dhoen@myrealbox.com