apt-cache policy

14 Mar 2009

It’s years since I’ve dealt with apt-pinning, so all my knowledge on it has paged-out.

But I want to use it again because I’ve backgraded to Ubuntu Gutsy to get my Palm Treo syncing, but I want a few new packages from Hardy or Intrepid. (It seems that Palm syncing using the visor module and JPilot still isn’t working, due to an unfixed regression in the kernel. Or maybe I just didn’t look hard enough. Bah – I dislike Hardy and Intrepid anyway).

Anyway, on my (ongoing) apt-pinning travels, I came across a good post on Simple Pinning, and somewhere else read about a neat command I never knew about – apt-cache policy – it shows what apt thinks the current pinning levels are:

Package files:
 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     release a=now
 500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-backports/universe Packages
     release v=7.10,o=Ubuntu,a=gutsy-backports,l=Ubuntu,c=universe
     origin au.archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-backports/multiverse Packages
     release v=7.10,o=Ubuntu,a=gutsy-backports,l=Ubuntu,c=multiverse
     origin au.archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-backports/main Packages
     release v=7.10,o=Ubuntu,a=gutsy-backports,l=Ubuntu,c=main
     origin au.archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-backports/restricted Packages
     release v=7.10,o=Ubuntu,a=gutsy-backports,l=Ubuntu,c=restricted
     origin au.archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-updates/universe Packages
     release v=7.10,o=Ubuntu,a=gutsy-updates,l=Ubuntu,c=universe
     origin au.archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-updates/restricted Packages
     release v=7.10,o=Ubuntu,a=gutsy-updates,l=Ubuntu,c=restricted
     origin au.archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy-updates/main Packages
     release v=7.10,o=Ubuntu,a=gutsy-updates,l=Ubuntu,c=main
     origin au.archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/universe Packages
     release v=7.10,o=Ubuntu,a=gutsy,l=Ubuntu,c=universe
     origin au.archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/restricted Packages
     release v=7.10,o=Ubuntu,a=gutsy,l=Ubuntu,c=restricted
     origin au.archive.ubuntu.com
 500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/main Packages
     release v=7.10,o=Ubuntu,a=gutsy,l=Ubuntu,c=main
     origin au.archive.ubuntu.com
Pinned packages:
     vinagre -> (not found)

Nice! Now, armed with this command I’ll start tinkering with /etc/apt/preferences to get Hardy and Intrepid in with proper preferences. TODO: RTFM man apt_preferences :-)