Re: [gentoo-user] how do I keep package from being updated?

[Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.]

On Thursday 11 January 2007 08:50, John Covici <covici@××××××××××.com> 
wrote about '[gentoo-user] how do I keep package from being updated?':
> Hi.  I just did emerge --pretend --update --deep world, but there is a
> package which I don't want to have emerge update automatically -- how
> do I accomplish this?

Add an appropriate atom to your /etc/portage/package.mask file.  There's a 
good section in the handbook about this, as well as it being documented in 
the various man pages installed with portage, such as man portage, man 
ebuild, and man 5 ebuild.

Very quickly:
If you have cate-gory/package-1.5.3 installed, and 
cate-gory/package-1.6.0_rc2 is available but you don't want to upgrade, 
add >=cate-gory/package-1.6* to your package.mask

(If it's a -rX upgrade, or and increase in the 3rd (or later) number in the 
version, you probably want the upgrade.  Really.  The former is an ebuild 
fix that won't change the upstream version you get (so, you will almost 
never encounter upgrade issues); the later is (for most packages) a 
security or bugfix release that should maintain compatibility with 
previous versions (so, you will rarely encounter upgrade issues).)

-- 
"If there's one thing we've established over the years,
it's that the vast majority of our users don't have the slightest
clue what's best for them in terms of package stability."
-- Gentoo Developer Ciaran McCreesh