apt-mark hold didn’t…

[Member stevesr0]

I use apt-mark hold and unhold daily on my Sid install to avoid upgrading packages that “develop” a systemd dependency.

Today, after holding pipewire-audio and libpipewire-0.3-modules-x11, I checked their status in aptitude. Neither was marked as held.

When I repeated this command, sudo apt-mark hold reported that both were held, NOT already held.

So unless I failed to notice an error message with the first sudo apt-mark hold command, it didn’t work the first time.

Don’t know if this is a one-time fluke or if that command with a particular version of apt is sometimes misfiring and misreporting.

Anyone else have a problem holding packages?

stevesr0

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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Use apt or aptitude not both

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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Yes, as anticapitalista said, use apt or aptitude, not both.
If you look around at various Debian distributions, particularly those that use unstable or constantly changing packages, some of them are adamant about using apt-get, or at least one consistent tool.

For those who have used aptitude in the past, you probably know that aptitude is quite likely to install a bunch of “recommended” packages along with whatever else you install.
If you are an every day user of a stable distribution, that’s fine, especially if you are lazy and willing to take whatever the package manager wants to do. This, however, can lead to uncomfortable, even disastrous circumstances when you’re using Sid in particular.

So if I were you, I’d use either apt or apt-get, but whatever you use, stick with only one package manager. Sure, you can browse and look around with synaptic or aptitude or whatever tool you want, BUT if you install even a single package and it has unresolved dependencies it can lead to a huge mess, so it’s better not to do that; get familiar with apt-cache search as an alternative.

That’s the advice of someone who’s been messing with Debian and Debian Sid for close to 25 years. I tried to break Sid more than once and it was PRETY RESILIENT until I deliberately mixed different packages together with different package managers; yup, that FINALLY broke it beyond repair. Of course that was a deliberate choice on a system that I was ready to rebuild and revamp; after that “adventure” that’s exactly what I had to do. So if you DO want to mess with something that you’re ready to cannibalize, then go for it; otherwise don’t mix packaging methods or packages from different repositories and different releases!

--
Brian Masinick

[Member stevesr0]

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Hi anticapitalista and Brian,

Thanks for comments.

I EXCLUSIVELY U.S. apt for update, full-upgrade, install, removal and hold.

After update and before full-upgrade, I routinely use aptitude to check the change before proceeding to use apt to complete a full-upgrade.

(I find it easy to click through each “to be upgraded package list” on aptitude.)

On this occasion, after doing apt-mark hold on a group of packages, two packages didn’t go on hold according to aptitude.

I went back to apt and repeated the hold command and apt said the packages were set on hold. Generally, if I accidentally repeat a hold command on a package apt has set to hold, the response from apt is “already set on hold”.

So, I concluded that the first apt hold command had not set the packages on hold for some reason.

(When I then went back to check on aptitude, it now showed these packages as being held.)

To repeat, I agree use only ONE package manager program to make changes.

I use apt.

stevesr0

• This reply was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by stevesr0.

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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@stevesr0 – glad you found the issue.
Generally speaking users should stick to updating etc with just one from apt, aptitude, synaptic (as you do) since one app may override another.

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member stevesr0]

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Thank you anticapitalista.

I believe I have found an issue (apt-mark hold NOT holding). I believe it is a failure of apt-mark hold. I believe it occurs only rarely. I think it is a (another) reason to double-check things (and if necessary triple-check things) before full-upgrading, ESPECIALLY when running versions with rapid changes in packages like Sid.

I DON’T believe I have “solved” this issue.

Hopefully, it is rare enough to warrant only a shrug of shoulders <g>.

stevesr0

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