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Asked: 2017-01-12 12:38:04 +0800 CST

Apt-Preferences doesn't accept package name

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I have two repositories with one package "libtidy-dev":

$ apt-cache policy libtidy-dev

libtidy-dev:
  Installed: 20091223cvs-1.2ubuntu1.1
  Candidate:   1:5.2.0-1+deb.sury.org~trusty+1
  Фиксатор пакета: 1:5.2.0-1+deb.sury.org~trusty+1
  Version table:
     1:5.2.0-1+deb.sury.org~trusty+1 400
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ondrej/php/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages
 *** 20091223cvs-1.2ubuntu1.1 400
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     20091223cvs-1.2ubuntu1 400
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages

I want to set priority for package "libtidy-dev" of "ppa:ondrey/php" repository to 400. So I created /etc/apt/preferences.d/libtidy-dev.pref with this content:

Package: libtidy-dev
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-ondrej-php
Pin-Priority: 400

But it doesn't work. If i replace first row

Package: *
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-ondrej-php
Pin-Priority: 400

it will works but for all packages from this repo. I dont't need to reduce priority for all packages, I want to do this only for "libtidy-dev". So I tried another way. I wrote to pref file this:

Package: libtidy-dev
Pin: origin archive.ubuntu.com
Pin-Priority: 990

Package: libtidy-dev
Pin: origin security.ubuntu.com
Pin-Priority: 990

This config does the same thing. If first row has package name it not works, but if I specify asterisk instead of package name, it works but for all packaes of these repos. What I'm doing wrong? How to set priority for one package of one repository?

ubuntu debian apt preferences

1 Answers

  1. Based on the output of apt-cache policy libtidy-dev, your configuration for pinning the priority of libtidy-dev did apply: 400 is listed next to the version number.

    For example, taking a Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial system with the default configuration and illustrating with appstream, as different versions of this package are available in the xenial and xenial-backports archives (which have different default priorities):

    $ apt-cache policy appstream
appstream:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.9.4-1ubuntu3
  Version table:
     0.10.6-1~ubuntu16.04.2 100
        100 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports/main amd64 Packages
     0.9.4-1ubuntu3 500
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages
     0.9.4-1 500
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages

    Adding the following file:

    $ cat /etc/apt/preferences.d/appstream
Package: appstream
Pin: release a=xenial-backports
Pin-Priority: 500

    Results in the output changing to:

    $ apt-cache policy appstream
appstream:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.10.6-1~ubuntu16.04.2
  Version table:
     0.10.6-1~ubuntu16.04.2 500
        100 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports/main amd64 Packages
     0.9.4-1ubuntu3 500
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages
     0.9.4-1 500
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages

    You can also run apt-cache policy without specifying a package name, which will list any pinned packages at the end of output:

    $ apt-cache policy
[...]
Pinned packages:
     appstream -> 0.10.6-1~ubuntu16.04.2 with priority 500

    The confusion stems from the fact that pinning all packages with a catch-all glob pattern changes the priority listed next to the archive, which is easier to spot than the one next to the package version:

    $ cat /etc/apt/preferences.d/appstream
Package: *
Pin: release a=xenial-backports
Pin-Priority: 500
$ apt-cache policy appstream
appstream:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 0.10.6-1~ubuntu16.04.2
  Version table:
     0.10.6-1~ubuntu16.04.2 500
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-backports/main amd64 Packages
     0.9.4-1ubuntu3 500
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages
     0.9.4-1 500
        500 http://de.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
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