Today's article explains how to stop an application from updating with 'apt-mark'.

[KGIII]

It's obviously only useful for those who use apt. It also only covers this specific usage.

Prevent Application Updates With 'APT-MARK' • Linux Tips

While unwise, there are times when you need to prevent application updates. You can do this with 'apt-mark' and this article will explain how.

linux-tips.us

As always, I do love me some feedback. I've been tampering with the site, currently having is spit out ads at whatever automatic level Google assures me is optimal. I've changed the layout, including moving the newsletter signup out of the sidebar and below articles - though I may test it above the articles.

 

[captain-sensible]

what does this mean in English ?
Adblocker Detected
We have detected that you are using adblocking plugin in your browser. Please whitelist our website and refresh this page to hide this message. You can also click 'Cancel'. It's okay if you do.'

 

[KGIII]

It means you're blocking ads and that the site shows ads. You can just click cancel and keep blocking ads, or you can whitelist the site and show ads.

You can still choose to block ads and I won't mind.

I guess I'm kinda hoping that the site will cover its own expenses, but that seems unlikely. I don't mind paying for it, but it's the principles involved I guess. I put enough effort into it, it can at least pay for itself.

 

[captain-sensible]

ok cheers i didn't want to click on either and was looking for a small x in top right hand corner of pop up. At it shows my add blocker on firefox is working !

 

[KGIII]

You can just click 'cancel' like it says. There's no X, it's a cancel button.

Ideally, it'll cover the hosting. I don't expect remuneration for the many, many hours I put into it. So, we'll see... The site will continue to grow. I've kept up the every-other-day publishing and I have a bunch of articles to transfer from the old domain. So, it should grow steadily. We'll see where it ends up.

 

[captain-sensible]

i would like to post both here and on your site ; how to do it in Arch/Arch based which is still new to me (though making progress) . here so that other Arch users might comment.

If you would like to keep it Debian based on your site i won't comment on your site , or if you like comparison i will

So i testing to stop geany updating.

First see if i have geany :

$ pacman -Qe |grep geany
geany 1.37.1-1

Now i'm going to edit section of /etc/pacman.conf

# Pacman won't upgrade packages listed in IgnorePkg and members of IgnoreGroup
IgnorePkg   = geany

i've never done it on Arch based and won't know if it works till next time there is a geany update && I update


[update i noticed updates where available for flac so put that in pacman.conf ]
it worked

 

[KGIII]

I don't actually know. I've never tried it. The next article tells ya how to do it with RPM-based distros. That won't help.

I did find this:

Ignore A Package From Being Upgraded In Arch Linux - OSTechNix

This brief tutorial addresses how to ignore a package from being upgraded in Arch Linux, EndeavourOS, and Manjaro Linux.

ostechnix.com

I don't see any good tools dedicated to the task. However, I did just find this pretty sweet link:

pacman/Rosetta - ArchWiki

wiki.archlinux.org

 

[captain-sensible]

i've edited my post substituted a pkg showing potential updates i.e flac . it worked and posted a question on your site

 

[KGIII]

That was a great question on the site. I responded.

Dependencies will still update, but you can hold those as well. There's no automatic way to block the dependencies from being upgraded, so you'll have to do that manually.

I'll do some looking for Arch-based distros and see what I come up with. I find it hard to believe that there's no tool (or inbuilt mechanism) to hold a package other than by editing conf files by hand. I did see a temporary command that'd do it, but I don't think that's what most folks would be interested in.

 

[captain-sensible]

there might be , i just haven't found it yet David

 

[KGIII]

I've done a bunch of searching in the interim and I'm not finding anything.

That seems like a pretty large oversight. The link I shared has a way to do it temporarily, or permanently by changing configuration files.

You'd edit the conf file with "IgnorePkg = <package_name>" and that does it.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Yes, that is in /etc/pacman.conf , Andy.

It will look something like

# Pacman won't upgrade packages listed in IgnorePkg and members of IgnoreGroup
#IgnorePkg   =
#IgnoreGroup =

Just uncomment the appropriate line and have a space following = before package name.

Wiz

 

[dos2unix]

I've always had trouble with this. I might be doing it wrong.

I've created a second repo for elasticsearch (and kibana) to initially install these.
Now I want to update the OS patches and of course that always works fine.
But it seems after a (indeterminate?) period of time, it starts updating
elasticsearch again. Is this "hold" option something that gets overwritten?

 

[KGIII]

Is this "hold" option something that gets overwritten?

Not that I've ever seen, no. I guess the only way to be sure is to test it and check with 'apt-mark showhold' prior to doing any updates or after seeing it update. I've never seen it 'unhold' automatically before.

 

[f33dm3bits]

Yes, that is in /etc/pacman.conf , Andy.

It will look something like

# Pacman won't upgrade packages listed in IgnorePkg and members of IgnoreGroup
#IgnorePkg   =
#IgnoreGroup =

Just uncomment the appropriate line and have a space following = before package name.

Wiz

Also becareful what package or package groups you add there because partial upgrades aren't supported by Arch.

 

[craigevil]

I have been out of the loop for far too long. I had no idea what apt-mark was.
I am used to apt-get hold foo. Aptitude has a hold command as well.
Getting the hang of just using "apt" is going to take some getting used to.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Getting the hang of just using "apt" is going to take some getting used to.

You don't have to, until apt-get is finally deprecated - I find some advantages to it over apt, but won't drag this Thread off-topic

Wiz

 

[captain-sensible]

That seems like a pretty large oversight.

i think the ethos for Arch is that you don't mark anything unless its out of the ordinary to stop it updating. Arch being a rolling release means users are constantly updating and on th Arch wiki it states partial updates are basically not supported .

 

[captain-sensible]

Yes, that is in /etc/pacman.conf , Andy.

It will look something like

# Pacman won't upgrade packages listed in IgnorePkg and members of IgnoreGroup
#IgnorePkg   =
#IgnoreGroup =

Just uncomment the appropriate line and have a space following = before package name.

Wiz

just to clarify picked flac which showed potential updates. added that to pacman.conf updated using

sudo pacman -Syu

flac was ignoredvforbupdating as expected . Then edited pacman.conf and put back # , ran update again and flac was updated. I think i'm getting hang of basics

 

[KGIII]

That makes sense. So, yeah, that might be why. It does have a mechanism for holding applications back, but it's laborious compared to the rest.

Also, I responded to your question on the site - as well as asked if you wanted your address transferred to the new site's newsletter. You were signed up at the original site. Everyone else that got the newsletter has been transferred to the new site's newsletter - but I don't your permission to migrate your address to the new system on the new site.

(I decided to get permission from people, rather than just importing them en masse. I don't ever want to be accused of spamming.)