[PLUG] Banning package(es) for good in Debian and Ubuntu

Rogan Creswick creswick at gmail.com
Wed Oct 29 17:32:35 UTC 2008


I've finally reached the breaking point with GCJ (the Gnu Compiler for
Java).  I have spent more time trying to fix problems related to gcj
than any other linux-related issue, and it keeps. comming. back.  I
would not be at all surprised to find that gcj has actually wasted
more time than has been spent developing it.

I need to find a way to keep gcj (and it's associated libraries,
etc...) from ever being installed again, but that doesn't seem to be
simple.  The only tip I've found are the instructions for holding
packages here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PinningHowto but that
doesn't seem to have any effect when I test by trying to install an
application that has a requirement on some gcj library. for example:

$ aptitude install pdftk
<snip>
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  gcj-4.2-base libgcj-common libgcj8-1 libgcj8-1-awt libgcj8-jar pdftk
0 packages upgraded, 6 newly installed, 0 to remove and 135 not upgraded.
Need to get 21.8MB of archives. After unpacking 50.4MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] n
Abort.
 |root on gnuwestlake @ 10:12:42 ~|
 $ echo gcj-4.2-base hold | dpkg --set-selections
 |root on gnuwestlake @ 10:13:12 ~|
 $ echo libgcj8-1-awt hold | dpkg --set-selections
 |root on gnuwestlake @ 10:13:22 ~|
 $ echo libgcj8-jar hold | dpkg --set-selections
 |root on gnuwestlake @ 10:13:29 ~|
 $ aptitude install pdftk
<snip>
The following NEW packages will be automatically installed:
  gcj-4.2-base libgcj-common libgcj8-1 libgcj8-1-awt libgcj8-jar
....

I've been using update-alternatives to reset the java version to sun's
java, but that is something that I (literally) have do to on a weekly
basis, since at least some packages seem to reset it for me when they
are installed/upgraded.  There are also many items that need to be
switched with update-alternatives, and I often forget to switch them
all.

Thanks!
Rogan



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