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I have a bunch of packages "enhanced" by some Debian repository. Now I've disabled that repo from /etc/apt/sources.list.d and I want to re-install all packages that were "enhanced" to... whatever is available. I can get the list of packages just fine using grep, but

apt-get install --reinstall \ $(dpkg-query -Wf '${Version}\t${Package}\n' | grep SOMEREPO | awk '{print $2}' )

reports that those packages can't be downloaded. And of course they can't — not at their current version. --reinstall --downgrade is rejected by apt. It seems that the only way to downgrade is to name a specific version (which would require even more nasty scripting for a batch of packages).

Anything I'm overlooking? Maybe aptitude can do it?

Update: I know it can be done via pinning (thanks so much, mods!), but really, that's not a solution. It's laborious, and I don't care about which specific source the downgrade comes from. I want to downgrade to whatever is available from the currently-enabled sources.

Update 2: I'm using a Debian-derivative (MX Linux), so downgrades could come from

  • Debian buster
  • buster-backports
  • the distro-specific https://mirrors.*/mx/MX-Packages/mx/repo/
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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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Pin-priorities are the solution; add this either to /etc/apt/preferences, or to a new file under /etc/apt/preferences.d:

Package: * Pin: release a=* Pin-Priority: 1001

apt upgrade will install the latest version of any installed package that it knows about, even if it means downgrading. apt only knows about packages from the currently-configured repositories, after apt update, so this will have the desired effect.

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  • This mostly worked wonders but for some reason it doesn't seem to downgrade all packages. Some were left at a version that's not available in any of the current repositories. I couldn't figure out why. Maybe something with dependencies. Commented Jul 5, 2024 at 2:42
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This is what I came up with:

apt install $(apt-show-versions | grep newer | awk '{print $1}' | while read pkg; do ver="$(apt-cache madison "$pkg" | head -n1 | awk -F'|' '{gsub("\\s", "", $2); print $2}')"; printf "%s=%s\n" "$pkg" "$ver"; done)

It works like this:

  1. Use apt-show-versions | grep newer | awk '{print $1}' to determine the list of packages that need to be downgraded:

    host ~ # apt-show-versions|grep newer libapache2-mod-php:all 2:8.3+94+0~20240205.51+debian11~1.gbp6faa2e newer than version in archive libapache2-mod-php8.2:amd64 8.2.18-1+0~20240411.52+debian11~1.gbp91aa2d newer than version in archive [...]

  2. Use apt-cache madison (which seems to be an easier-to-parse alternative to apt-cache policy) to determine the most recent version of each package:

    host ~ # apt-cache madison libapache2-mod-php libapache2-mod-php | 2:8.2+93~iservbpo11+1 | https://update.iserv.eu/debian bullseye-stable/main amd64 Packages libapache2-mod-php | 2:7.4+76 | http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye/main amd64 Packages

  3. Construct a pkg=ver string for each package, ie libapache2-mod-php=2:8.2+93~iservbpo11+1 that instructs APT to install this specific version of the package, and pass all these strings to apt install.

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  • awk '/ newer /{ print $1 }, the rest, I'd have to check, it's been a while. Cool though Commented Apr 18, 2024 at 19:56
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For future reference, from the do as you're told, Debian department... After some furious scripting:

ps=$(for p in $(dpkg-query -Wf '${Version}\t${Package}\n' | grep REPO | awk '{print $2}'); do apt --quiet list $p | grep -v /now | grep / | awk '{print $1}' | head -1 done) # this still leaves some /oldstable,oldstable broken versions apt install --reinstall $(echo "$ps" | cut -f1 -d,)

Not that I recommend it; it's just annoying when the system gets in the way of simple tasks.

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