Re: downloading downgraded packages

[Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@debian.org>]

On Sun, 11 Mar 2001 admar@luon.net wrote:

> I've read that apt 0.5.x has the ability to downgrade packages. However,
> I could only find some information about the algorithm it uses, and I
> would like to know if there is a command line option for apt-get to
> download eg debconf 0.2.80.17 even if I have 0.5.35 installed.

wakko{jgg}~/work/apt#man apt-get
[..]
       install
              install is followed by one or more packages desired
              for  installation.  Each package is a package name,
              not a fully qualified filename (for instance, in  a
[..]
              A specific version of a package can be selected for
              installation  by following the package name with an
              equals and the version of the  package  to  select.
              This  will  cause  that  version  to be located and
              selected for install. Alternatively a specific dis­
              tribution  can be selected by following the package
              name with a slash and the version of the  distribu­
              tion  or  the  Archive name (stable, frozen, unsta­
              ble).
[..]
 
> I think it would be nice if apt-get could have the same functionality as
> fetch (the binary in apt-move 4.x): if you give fetch a list of packages
> (on the commandline), it will just download them, without looking if the

I have not entirely decided if that is appropriate functionality for
apt-get. I am tempted to say it is not. A quality deb downloader tool like
you probably want would be best done as a seperate program using
libapt-pkg, or using the coming python bindings.

Jason