dpkg-hold(8)

✨ dpkg-hold — it's giving "don't touch my packages" ✨

okay bestie, so this one lives in the dpkg suite and it's the dpkg-hold manual, section 8 (that's the sysadmin girly section 💅). let's get into it.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

dpkg-hold — marks packages as held so they cannot be installed. literally just vibes of "hands off, she's taken". 💖

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

dpkg-hold [package...]

that's it. that's the whole thing. you pass her some package names, she holds them. no cap. ✨

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⚠️ WARNING ⚠️

bestie. listen to me. STOP. 🛑

This command is deprecated and will be removed during in Debian forky. not "might be", not "maybe someday" — it's getting removed, fr fr. 😭

instead, please use:

• dpkg --set-selections
• apt-mark

like, use those. the grown-up ones. the ones with a future. 🙈

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

dpkg-hold marks package(s) to be held. that's the whole assignment. she ate. 👑

the way she does this? she runs dpkg --set-selections and pipes in the package name(s) followed by hold. iconic behavior honestly. 🎀

NOTE: this program does not install, remove, or purge any package. she does ONLY one thing: sets the status of the package. that's her whole personality. 🦋 any actual removal or purging happens the next time dselect, apt-get, aptitude, etc. are run. so it's giving "the real work happens later, not now". ⭐

so like. don't come for her asking why the package is still on your system. she just marked it. the next run of your package manager is the one doing the deleting. iykyk. 💜

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

go read these next, bestie, they're all in the same friend group:

• dpkg(1)
• apt-mark(8)
• dpkg-unhold(1)
• dpkg-remove(1)
• dpkg-purge(1)

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and that's the whole page!! 🫶 this little cutie is dpkg-hold(8), version 1.17, dated 2024-11-25, part of the dpkg suite. mwah 💋 now go use apt-mark like the main character you are. 💖✨🌸🎀🦋💅