Package: libapt-pkg5.0 Version: 1.6~alpha4 Severity: normal I have both libfreetype6:amd64 and libfreetype6:i386 installed from stretch, and I want to keep the stretch version. For apt_preferences, if I use:
Package: libfreetype6* Pin: release n=stretch Pin-Priority: 900 "apt-show-versions -a libfreetype6" gives in particular: libfreetype6:amd64/stable 2.6.3-3.2 uptodate libfreetype6:i386/stable 2.6.3-3.2 upgradeable to 2.8.1-0.1 (aptitude has the same issue, so that I suppose the bug comes from libapt-pkg5.0). However, the following is fine: Package: libfreetype6:* Pin: release n=stretch Pin-Priority: 900 "apt-show-versions -a libfreetype6" gives in particular: libfreetype6:amd64/stable 2.6.3-3.2 uptodate libfreetype6:i386/stable 2.6.3-3.2 uptodate i.e. it won't try to upgrade the i386 version. So it appears that * doesn't match the ":" character here, contrary to what the glob(7) man page says: A '*' (not between brackets) matches any string, including the empty string. (referenced in the apt_preferences(5) man page). If I try regular expressions, for: Package: /libfreetype6/ Pin: release n=stretch Pin-Priority: 900 "apt-show-versions -a libfreetype6" gives in particular: libfreetype6:amd64/stable 2.6.3-3.2 uptodate libfreetype6:i386/stable 2.6.3-3.2 upgradeable to 2.8.1-0.1 i.e. same issue. But for: Package: /libfreetype6:/ Pin: release n=stretch Pin-Priority: 900 "apt-show-versions -a libfreetype6" gives in particular: libfreetype6:amd64/stable 2.6.3-3.2 upgradeable to 2.8.1-0.1 libfreetype6:i386/stable 2.6.3-3.2 upgradeable to 2.8.1-0.1 This is buggy and inconsistent with globbing. -- System Information: Debian Release: buster/sid APT prefers unstable-debug APT policy: (500, 'unstable-debug'), (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Foreign Architectures: i386 Kernel: Linux 4.13.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/12 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=POSIX, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=POSIX (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system) Versions of packages libapt-pkg5.0 depends on: ii libbz2-1.0 1.0.6-8.1 ii libc6 2.24-17 ii libgcc1 1:7.2.0-12 ii liblz4-1 0.0~r131-2+b1 ii liblzma5 5.2.2-1.3 ii libstdc++6 7.2.0-12 ii libudev1 235-2 ii zlib1g 1:1.2.8.dfsg-5 Versions of packages libapt-pkg5.0 recommends: ii apt 1.6~alpha4 libapt-pkg5.0 suggests no packages. -- no debconf information