forcing apt-get to install certain package versions...

[Josh Huber <huber@debian.org>]

I've been using a meta-package (built with equivs) to keep a bunch of
my co-workers' installations in sync, but I've been having trouble
in some cases.

It seems as though apt-get *really* likes to install the newest
version of a package, even when it could successfully install the
specified packages in the Depends line.

For example, say I have a package "buildtools", which depends on
several other packages:

Depends: build-essential, foo (= 2.3.4-5), bar (>> 5.4.3-2), baz

This works fine, until I want to install a *older* version of the
"buildtools" package which depends on an older version of "foo"
...let's say 2.3.4-4:

Sorry, but the following packages have unmet dependencies:
  buildtools: Depends: foo (= 2.3.4-4) but 2.3.4-5 is to be installed
E: Sorry, broken packages

Is there any way to tell APT, "yes, just install the dependencies" ?

Originally, I thought this was a bug, but I think it may be a feature
request :)

Thanks!

-- 
Josh Huber