How to pin only specific programs

aquaboot · 07-25-2015, 11:30 AM

Hi All,

I'm running Debian Jessie but want two programs from stretch:

packagekit

and

pk-update-icon

How can I use pinning to just download and install these two programs and track updates? These two programs are not available in Jessie.

Thanks

BTW here is my sources.list:

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 8.0.0 _Jessie_ - Official amd64 NETINST Binary-1 20150425-12:50]/ jessie main

#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 8.0.0 _Jessie_ - Official amd64 NETINST Binary-1 20150425-12:50]/ jessie main

deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb-src http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free

# jessie-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ jessie-updates main contrib non-free

#Pinned Testing
deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
deb-src http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free

mralk3 · 07-25-2015, 11:38 AM

To the best of my knowledge there isn't any way to pin a single program in Debian. Undoubtedly those programs have dependencies as well that will need to be installed. So pinning just those two programs will not work anyway. Do you really need to stay on Jessie? You could always upgrade to Testing if you are pinning software from Stretch.

Another option is to build your own .deb packages for these pieces of software compiled against your current Debian Jessie system so that they do not require newer software versions of libraries or dependencies. Seems like a more plausible solution.

jdkaye · 07-25-2015, 01:55 PM

Sure you can apt-pin a package. You may have to satisfy a bunch of dependencies but that depends on which package you want to pin. In general it's a bad idea to use apt-pinning when you're running a stable (now called Jessie) release but it's quit OK to do if from Testing (now called Stretch) and get some Sid packages. Here's a simulation to show how it would be done (the -s option means it's a simulation).

Code:

:~$ apt-get -s -t unstable install ksysguard
NOTE: This is only a simulation!
      apt-get needs root privileges for real execution.
      Keep also in mind that locking is deactivated,
      so don't depend on the relevance to the real current situation!
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  ksysguard-data ksysguardd libkf5newstuff-data libkf5newstuff5 libkf5sysguard-bin
  libkf5sysguard-data libksgrd7 libksignalplotter7 libprocesscore7 libprocessui7
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  ksysguard-data libkf5newstuff-data libkf5newstuff5 libkf5sysguard-bin libkf5sysguard-data
  libksgrd7 libksignalplotter7 libprocesscore7 libprocessui7
The following packages will be upgraded:
  ksysguard ksysguardd
2 upgraded, 9 newly installed, 0 to remove and 178 not upgraded.

jdk