[plug] Debian: Forcing packages to remain at version x under testing/unstable

[Alex Nordstrom]

On Tuesday, 2 Nov 2004 15:16, Timothy White wrote:
> I run Debian Testing and would like to force it to keep the packages
> 'libc6 libc6-dev locales' at the current version. I want to install
> 'libnss-ldap nscd libpam-ldap' but it wants to update libc6... Is
> there a way I can force libc6... to stay at the current version and
> install an older version of 'libnss-ldap nscd libpam-ldap' ?

$ man apt-get
[...]
install
[...]
              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 distribution can be selected by
              following the package name with a slash and the version of
              the distribution or the Archive name (stable, testing,
              unstable).

Your sources must contain a repository containing the appropriate 
versions of the packages you wish to install.

Note that you do indeed want to install the older version of your 
desired packages rather than overriding the dependencies, which are 
there and enforced by Apt for good reasons.

The question occurs to me, though, why do you not want to upgrade the 
packages in question? Recall that the only way security problems are 
generally fixed in Testing is through updates trickling down from 
Unstable. If there is a newer version available in the distribution you 
are running, you should use it in most cases.

-- 
Alex Nordstrom
http://lx.n3.net/
Please do not CC me in followups; I am subscribed to plug.