what does "The following packages have been kept back" mean

joesbox · 10-26-2003, 09:45 AM

here is what the term looks like after apt-get upgrade

Code:

geekazoid:~# apt-get upgrade
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages have been kept back
  imagemagick libmng1 libpango1.0-0 libpango1.0-common libpango1.0-dev python
  python-tk python2.2 python2.2-tk tasksel
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 10 not upgraded.
geekazoid:~#

what does the "...kept back" quote mean. do i have to upgrade them individually or do i not have to upgrade them at all or what??

hw-tph · 10-26-2003, 10:05 AM

It is possible that the packages that have been kept back depend on a new package, or the Debian distribution site you're using is not complete (in an inconsistent state - this is not very likely, it has never happened to me). apt-get upgrade will not install new packages, even to satisfy denendencies, so try using apt-get dist-upgrade instead. You will have to do this if you run Testing or Unstable since package dependencies are altered all the time in these distributions.

Håkan

HappyTux · 10-26-2003, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by joesbox
here is what the term looks like after apt-get upgrade

Code:

geekazoid:~# apt-get upgrade Reading Package Lists... Done Building Dependency Tree... Done The following packages have been kept back imagemagick libmng1 libpango1.0-0 libpango1.0-common libpango1.0-dev python python-tk python2.2 python2.2-tk tasksel 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 10 not upgraded. geekazoid:~#

what does the "...kept back" quote mean. do i have to upgrade them individually or do i not have to upgrade them at all or what??

Kept back means that some of the programs require another program or library that is not going to be installed at the version needed or you have put the program/library on hold to prevent their upgrade. If you absolutely need the newer versions of the programs that are being held back the you need to find the problem and correct it otherwise you can just wait until the required version of the program/library is installable and the programs being held back will install.

To find the program/library holding back the install start with say python apt-get -s install python to simulate the install if it looks like it will install then more than likely it is pulling in the newer version that was holding it back so remove the -s from the line to install and you now should be able to proceed with the upgrade if you get a screen that tells you that XYZ needs to be version >= 1.2.3 and version 1.2.2 is going to be installed you would use apt-cache policy XYZ to see the available versions of XYZ and where they will be installed from, now say that version 1.2.3-1 is availabe from unstable for XYZ then to install it you would apt-get install XYZ/unstable or apt-get install -t unstable XYZ to install from the unstable branch, apt-get install XYZ=1.2.3-1 will install the exact version number. You would now proceed with trying the upgrade again if the programs are being held back still then you would repeat the procedure until you track down and install everything that is needed for the upgrade to complete. Sometimes you end up with two or more programs/libraries that will not install without the newer version of each other with this situation you would put them all on the same command line to install eg. apt-get install -t unstable program1 program2 program3.