[packagekit] Holding packages

[Richard Hughes]

On 26 May 2011 14:01, Daniel Nicoletti <dantti85-pk at yahoo.com.br> wrote:
> * Some users find that very usefull as sometimes you know
> the newer package is broken.

Yes, there is an open Fedora bug about this kind of functionality too.

> My proposal to the API is a new method HoldPackages(as pkg_ids, bool hold)
> the latter allows the package to be UNHOLD.
> Then when we do GetUpdates packages with INFO_HOLD will be emited
> so that the user knows that to update it he first has to UNHOLD it.

This seems quite underspecified. Should packages that are held be
allowed to be removed or installed? Should hal;0.3;i386;fedora be held
if hal;0.4;i686;fedora is updated? What about
hal;0.3;i386;fedora-unstable-tests-updates

> Is that usefull for any other backend?
> Is the API proposal reasonable?

I think we need concrete use cases (for
http://packagekit.org/pk-profiles.html ;-) and a more specified
proposal first. For instance, should the user be able to lock down
what packages can be installed or removed, and that kind of thing. I
don't think making it map 1:1 to the debian dpgk hold system is
terribly useful on it's own.

Richard