Re: apt-get "pinning"

[MattyT <matty@chariot.net.au>]

Tom Hoover wrote:

> "apt-get install xxx" & "apt-get -t sid install xxx" work as expected,
> but "apt-get upgrade" tries to upgrade over 300 packages on my system to
> sid.  I can remove all references to sid from my sources.list, perform
> an "apt-get update; apt-get upgrade", and it works as expected.  Am I
> misunderstanding the use of the pins?  Do they only work with "apt-get
> install", and not "apt-get upgrade"?  Or, do I have something
> misconfigured?

I have seen the same thing - note that I am using "testing" and
"unstable", not "sarge" and "sid", and it's still an issue.

What might be happening is that the package system is realising there
are two versions available, but only the one is unstable is acceptable
due to dependencies.  As a result pulling one package from unstable
could result in a whole lot of other packages being pulled from unstable
even though they are pinned to testing.  In other words, dependencies
might be being considered before pinning.

I don't think this used to happen, but can't be sure, as changes in the
archives could cause this situation become more obvious.  But perhaps
the behaviour of apt has changed at some point.

-- 
         Matthew Tuck: Software Developer & All-Round Nice Guy        
 My Short Autobiography: 1985 Grade Bin Monitor 1990 Class Clown Award
1992 Awarded Most Likely To Spontaneously Combust 1996 Crowned Galactic
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