Re: `holding back' packages?
On 1 Jul 2001, Mario Vukelic wrote:
> On 01 Jul 2001 10:53:56 -0700, Krzys Majewski wrote:
> > 1. How can I `hold back' packages so Debian doesn't upgrade them?
>
> use dselect. You can put pkgs on hold with "="
Thanks. Is this persistent, in the sense that I can use dselect to
hold back the packages, quit dselect, and apt-get will do the right
thing?
> > 2. Does apt-get/dpkg always overwrite existing files, or only if their
> > timestamps are older than the corresponding file in the .deb?
>
> Since the package manager needs to know what files *exactly* you have, I
> would say it ovwerwrites always
Interesting. I know RPM won't overwrite files that have been
touched. Then again RPM doesn't seem to distinguish between binaries
and config files. Debian clearly does - it won't overwrite config
files, but, as you suggest, it will overwrite binaries. Wonder which
is better..
> > I run a customized potato box. Usually I keep custom stuff separate
> > from Debian by installing it in /usr/local. This was not the case for
> > XFree86 version 4. Thinking I had some time to kill this morning, I
> > foolishly did a `apt-get upgrade', which "upgraded" the X packages
> > to whatever Debian thinks is the latest version of 3.3.6. My X
> > installation got destroyed. I'd like to prevent this from happening
> > again ;)
>
> Uuuh, so don't do anything to your installed files without the package
> managers knowledge!! Bad Idea!!!!
> There are X4 debs available for potato. Somebody discussed it on the
> list in recent times. Search the archive
Uh yeah, I saw that one coming.. Unfortunately at the time I did this,
there weren't any potato X4 debs (that I could find). And the guy who
made the potato X4 debs, how did *he* do it?
Bottom line for me is, it's my box, I need to override Debian
occasionally. There used to be (still is?) this thing called `equiv'
for registering locally installed things with dpkg, but it's more of a
hassle than I'm willing to put up with for every tarball I
build. Every once in a while, I set my mind on gradually moving
completely to src and abandoning Debian.. but hey, I like Debian.
-chris
Reply to: