Re: How to skip installing one package.

[roberto@familiasanchez.net]

Quoting Franki <franki@littlehosting.com>:

> Hi guys,
> 
> I've a recent convert to Debian from RH and MDK, and this is my first 
> trip down the dpkg/apt-get route.
> 
Good for you.

> I have setup a mail server using debian woody and several packages from 
> backports.org, however one package I couldn't find as I needed it was 
> postfix, so I compiled it myself with virtual folders, sasl and mysql 
> support, then I setup courier-imap etc etc.
> 
> Anyway, the end result has been exceptional however I am worried about 
> doing an apt-get update/upgrade because I worry my custom install of 
> postfix will be upgraded and I really don't want that as the replacement 
> is likely to be very different from the original.
> 
Did you customize an existing Debian package or install from the upstream
source?

> You might say that if you didn't install postfix in the first place, 
> apt-get won't try and upgrade it, but unfortunately I did have postfix 
> installed via apt and overwrote it with the newly compiled version. 
> (because I had a ton of other stuff that apt won't install without an 
> MTA installed)
> 
This is bad.  I would recommend that you either modify the package from
Sid to your liking and use that (essentially backport it yourself) or
remove the postfix* package(s) you have installed (you can force the removal
process to ignore dependency checks) and then install a dummy package
created with equivs.  equivs is very easy to use and allows you to create
"fake" packages that make dpkg think that you have installed a particular
package with a particular version that provides whatever you it to provide
and depends on whatever you want it to depend on.

> Anyway, onto my question, is there anyway to tell apt-get to skip trying 
> to install an updated postfix package?  I read though the man pages and 
> searched the net, but couldn't find an answer that made sense to me.

Set the pakcage status to "hold" through your package management program.

-Roberto Sanchez

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