[Apt-Rpm] How do I hold back individual packages from being upgraded

[Nigel Henry]

On Friday 14 December 2007 05:24, Gary L. Greene Jr. wrote:
> On Thursday 13 December 2007 02:58:05 pm Nigel Henry wrote:
> > I have a problem with the fltk package. The Fedora 7 version will not
> > work with Zynaddsubfx, so I've replaced the Fedora 7 version of fltk with
> > that from FC5.
> >
> > Now when I run apt-get update, followed by apt-get dist-upgrade, apt-get
> > wants to upgrade fltk to the Fedora 7 version again, which I don't want.
> >
> > I've looked through the man pages for apt-get, but all I can find is the
> > option --ignore-hold, but can't find any info on how to place a hold on a
> > specific package.
> >
> > Any magical incantions I can use to hold back the upgrading of fltk?
> >
> > Distro: Fedora 7
> > Apt version: apt-0.5.15lorg3.2-12.fc7
> >
> > Gratefull as always for any help.
> >
> > Nigel.

> You'll want to look into pinning the version you want. Take a read of the
> apt_preferences man page. There is also some info about this on
> http://www.apt-rpm.org/

Thanks for the pointers Gary.

I have put the following into /etc/apt/preferences.

Package: fltk
Pin: version 1.1.8*
Pin-Priority: 0

According to the man page for apt_preferences, a 0 (zero) prevents the version 
from being installed.

Now I run an apt-get update, and upon completion the last line says.
W: No priority (or zero) specified for pin

Now I'm a bit confused, unless the syntax for the examples on the manpage is 
incorrect.

The current version of fltk installed is 1.1.7-1.fc5, and I want to prevent it 
being upgraded to the Fedora 7 version, which causes problems with a music 
app. An apt-get update, followed by apt-get dist-upgrade shows the following 
for fltk.
fltk (1.1.7-1.fc5 => 1.1.8-0.3.r5750.fc7)

Any additional help in resolving this problem will be very welcome.

Nigel.