NAME

       dnf-versionlock - DNF versionlock Plugin

DESCRIPTION

       versionlock  is  a plugin that takes a set of names and versions for packages and excludes
       all other versions of those packages. This allows  you  to  protect  packages  from  being
       updated  by  newer versions. Alternately, it accepts a specific package version to exclude
       from updates, e.g. for when it's necessary to skip a specific release of  a  package  that
       has known issues.

       The  plugin  provides  a command versionlock which allows you to view and edit the list of
       locked packages easily.

       The plugin will walk each line of the versionlock file, and parse out the name and version
       of  the  package.  It will then exclude any package by that name that doesn't match one of
       the versions listed within the file. This is basically the same as using dnf --exclude for
       the package name itself (as you cannot exclude installed packages), but dnf will still see
       the versions you have installed/versionlocked as available  so  that  dnf  reinstall  will
       still work, etc.

       It can also work in the opposite way, like a fast exclude, by prefixing a '!' character to
       the version recorded in the lock list file. This  specifically  excludes  a  package  that
       matches the version exactly.

       Note  the  versionlock  plugin does not apply any excludes in non-transactional operations
       like repoquery, list, info, etc.

SYNOPSIS

       dnf versionlock [options] [add|exclude|list|delete|clear] [<package-name-spec>]

ARGUMENTS

       <package-name-spec>
              Package spec to lock or exclude.

SUBCOMMANDS

       dnf versionlock add <package-name-spec>
              Add a versionlock for all available packages matching the spec. It means that  only
              versions  of  packages  represented  by  <package-name-spec>  will be available for
              transaction operations.  Each <package-name-spec> is converted to  concrete  NEVRAs
              which  are  used  for  locking.  The  NEVRAs  to  lock  to are first searched among
              installed packages and then (if none is found) in all currently available packages.

              Examples:

                 Locking a package to the version installed:

                     $ dnf repoquery --installed bash
                     bash-0:5.0.7-1.fc30.x86_64

                     $ dnf repoquery bash
                     bash-0:5.0.2-1.fc30.i686
                     bash-0:5.0.2-1.fc30.x86_64
                     bash-0:5.0.7-1.fc30.i686
                     bash-0:5.0.7-1.fc30.x86_64

                     $ dnf versionlock add bash
                     Adding versionlock on: bash-0:5.0.7-1.fc30.*

                 Locking not installed package to any of available versions:

                     $ dnf repoquery --installed mutt

                     $ dnf repoquery mutt
                     mutt-5:1.11.4-1.fc30.x86_64
                     mutt-5:1.12.1-3.fc30.x86_64

                     $ dnf versionlock add mutt
                     Adding versionlock on: mutt-5:1.11.4-1.fc30.*
                     Adding versionlock on: mutt-5:1.12.1-3.fc30.*

              NOTE:
                 Be careful when adding specific versions

                 If  you  add   a   package   specifying   a   version   with   dnf   versionlock
                 mutt-5:1.11.4-1.fc30.x86_64   then,   if   you  run  dnf  versionlock  add  mutt
                 versionlock will not add mutt-5:1.12.1-3.fc30.x86_64.

       dnf versionlock exclude <package-name-spec>
              Add an exclude (within  versionlock) for the available packages matching the  spec.
              It  means  that  packages  represented by <package-name-spec> will be excluded from
              transaction operations.

       dnf versionlock list or dnf versionlock
              List the current versionlock entries.

       dnf versionlock delete <package-name-spec>
              Remove any matching versionlock entries.

       dnf versionlock clear
              Remove all versionlock entries.

OPTIONS

       All general DNF options are accepted, see Options in dnf(8) for details.

       --raw  Do not resolve <package-name-spec> to NEVRAs to find specific version to  lock  to.
              Instead  <package-name-spec>  are used as they are. This enables locking to not yet
              available versions of the package.  For example you  may  want  to  keep  the  bash
              package  on  major version 5 and consume any future updates as far as they keep the
              major version:

                 $ dnf versionlock add --raw 'bash-5.*'
                 Adding versionlock on: bash-5.*

CONFIGURATION

       /etc/dnf/plugins/versionlock.conf

       The minimal content of conf file should contain main sections with  enabled  and  locklist
       parameters.

       locklist
              This  option  is  a  string  that  points  to  the  file  which has the versionlock
              information in it. Note that the file has to exist (or the versionlock plugin  will
              make dnf exit). However, it can be empty.

              The  file  takes  entries in the format of <package-name-spec> (optionally prefixed
              with '!' for excludes).  See Specifying packages in dnf(8) for details.

NOTES

       A specified package does not have to exist within the available cache of  repository  data
       to  be  considered  valid  for locking or exclusion. This is by design, to accommodate use
       cases such as a presently disabled repository.  However,  a  package  must  exist  in  the
       repository cache when the add or exclude subcommands are invoked for it.

AUTHOR

       See AUTHORS in your Core DNF Plugins distribution

COPYRIGHT

       2023, Red Hat, Licensed under GPLv2+