[Aptitude-devel] Bug#929104: Allow hold and forbid-version on NON-INSTALLED packages too

[積丹尼 Dan Jacobson]

Package: aptitude
Version: 0.8.11-7
Severity: wishlist

If a package is installed, one can forbid-version, and / or hold it.

But if a package is not installed yet, one cannot!

One cannot say "I want to hold package X's status as 'purge'" to prevent
future accidental installation.

"Version ABC of package XYZ will wreck my system, and even though it is
XYZ is not installed now, full-upgrade proposes to install it. I'm scared."

"No I don't want to research what is trying to pull it in. I just want
to *blacklist it now*!"

"And maybe multiple things are trying to pull it in. I don't want to
have to chase them all down."

One could say, "Just use apt-mark."

But as we see in #929103 that is not a permanent solution.

If you think about it, there is no reason forbid-version shouldn't be
allowed to work on packages that aren't installed yet.

Same with hold.

Sure you might say it is wasteful to keep forbid-version records for
packages that are not installed.

Well at least those packages are still in the Packages lists.