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
