I‘ve build my own lighttpd .deb package and I do not want to upgrade it using the apt-get command. Also, I do not want to upgrade a few more packages such as php5-cgi, httpd and so on. How do I blacklist a package or packages so that when I run apt-get upgrade, it will ignore blacklisted packages and install the rest of updates under Debian or Ubuntu Linux server system?


You need use the dpkg command – a tool to install, build, remove and manage Debian packages. Each package under Debian or Ubuntu Linux has the following selection stats:

1. install – The package is selected for installation.
2. hold – A package marked to be on hold is not handled by dpkg, unless forced to do that with option –force-hold.
3. deinstall – The package is selected for deinstallation (i.e. we want to remove all files, except configuration files).
4. purge – The package is selected to be purged (i.e. we want to remove everything from system directories, even configuration files).

Option #1: dpkg command syntax

To blacklist a Debian / Ubuntu package use the following command:

echo "packageName hold" | dpkg --set-selections
echo "lighttpd hold" | dpkg --set-selections

To remove package hold and install/upgrade again:

echo "packageName install” | dpkg --set-selections
echo "lighttpd install” | dpkg --set-selections

Option #2: /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01autoremove

Another option is to edit a file called /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01autoremove, enter:
# vi /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01autoremove
Sample outputs:

APT
{
  NeverAutoRemove
  {
        "^firmware-linux.*";
        "^linux-firmware$";
        "^linux-image.*";
        "^kfreebsd-image.*";
        "^linux-restricted-modules.*";
        "^linux-ubuntu-modules-.*";
  };

  Never-MarkAuto-Sections
  {
        "metapackages";
        "restricted/metapackages";
        "universe/metapackages";
        "multiverse/metapackages";
        "oldlibs";
        "restricted/oldlibs";
        "universe/oldlibs";
        "multiverse/oldlibs";
  };
};

Move cursor at the the bottom of the section called “Never-MarkAuto-Sections” and append and entry to the section to block grub I entered “php5-cgi*”:

  Never-MarkAuto-Sections
  {
        "metapackages";
        "restricted/metapackages";
        "universe/metapackages";
        "multiverse/metapackages";
        "oldlibs";
        "restricted/oldlibs";
        "universe/oldlibs";
        "multiverse/oldlibs";
        "php5-cgi*";
  };

Save and close the file.

A note about RHEL / CentOS / SL / Fedora Linux users

You need to edit a file called name.repo see, how to blacklist a package under RHEL / CentOS for more information.