Question about locking packages

[Gustavo Niemeyer]

Hello Thomas,

> Recently we decided to replace the whole apt-rpm with smart.
> Now I got a 

Interesting. Who are "we" and how's the process going?

> problem with locking packages which actually should only be kept back 
> til I give the signal to install them.
> 
> I consider something like this:
> 
> smart upgrade shows all locked packages
> -> compare locked packages with the output of smart flag --show lock
> -> give smart an option like smart upgrade --really-all to update also 
> locked packages or smart upgrade <packagename> to upgrade this locked 
> package.
> 
> Does anyone has a script to do this. maybe via cron? Or is there a 
> workaround for this problem?

I'm not sure I understand the problem you're trying to solve. When you
lock a package you're asking Smart not to allow these packages to be
changed. If you want to change these packages all you have to do is
unlocking them (that's the equivalent of --really-all).

Perhaps what you're looking for is a "soft lock" that prevents the
package from being upgraded automatically. But in this case, what
happens if the package is being required by another package that
will be upgraded (isn't "soft locked")?

-- 
Gustavo Niemeyer
http://niemeyer.net